Visiting from overseas:
how consultations and follow-up work

How does a consultation work if you are visiting from overseas?

It starts with a message. Most people write on WhatsApp at +65 8023 7170, which is answered during clinic hours, Monday to Friday 10am to 8pm and Saturday 11am to 3pm, Singapore time. A sentence on the area, how long it has been changing, anything already tried and the dates you will be in Singapore is enough for the team to book the right length of consultation. If you would rather not use WhatsApp, the enquiry form and the contact page offer other routes.

Where it helps, photographs sent by message before you travel are reviewed so the visit can be planned. Its purpose is practical: to understand what you want assessed, to say whether a visit is likely to be worthwhile, and to tell you what to bring. It is a planning conversation. The Singapore Medical Council's ethical code says telemedicine is not equal to in-person care and that patients must understand its limitations, and the limit here is plain: nobody can examine skin, palpate filler or map product by ultrasound through a screen. The in-person visit follows the steps on the consultation process page.

How do you plan around flights and a short stay?

Tell the team your dates first, then build the plan around them. You are not expected to be treated on the day of the consultation, and you should not feel pressed to decide at the first visit; you can take the written plan away and return with questions. Consent is taken with enough time to consider and clarify doubts, so a consultation early in your stay leaves room to decide.

Some treatments are reviewed once the product has settled, and longer programmes have a review interval set by the doctor. After filler, for example, strenuous exercise, saunas, alcohol and facial treatments that apply heat or pressure are postponed for a short period, and travel planned close to a treatment date is worth mentioning beforehand. If the review a plan calls for falls after you leave, the plan may be staged differently, or the treatment may be deferred until a time that suits both the skin and the calendar. That is an honest answer, and it is better made before a flight is booked than after.

“Every plan begins with an assessment — you will always know what is proposed, and why, before anything is done.”

Dr Sin YongOn how a consultation is structured

What can be done remotely, and what cannot?

Remote contact can do four things well: clarify the concern, collect your history, plan the timing of a visit, and answer questions about aftercare. It cannot examine you, so it cannot diagnose a lift concern, an eye-area problem, a lump after filler or a patch of pigmentation, and it cannot prescribe or quote for treatment. The table below sets out the division.

The division matters most for treatments where the cause decides the approach. Pigmentation can be melasma, sun spots or post-inflammatory marks; the same look can come from different layers of tissue; filler that looks heavy may be product, fluid or your own tissue. These are settled by examination, which is why the practice does not give treatment fees or plans before one.

What happens with aftercare once you are back home?

You leave with written aftercare that sets out what to expect, what to avoid and which signs to report, and questions after treatment come back through the same WhatsApp line. Most of what people notice, such as some swelling, redness or bruising after injectables, or warmth and fine crusting after laser, is expected and covered in the written advice.

Urgent signs are different, and distance changes what you do rather than what they mean. After filler, skin that turns white, dusky or mottled, or pain that is severe or worsening, needs same-day assessment by a local doctor, and any change in vision needs the nearest hospital emergency department; the number 995 applies in Singapore only, so use your local emergency number at home. Show the doctor your treatment summary, because hyaluronidase acts only on hyaluronic acid filler and knowing the product changes what can be done. The complication care page sets out the signs in full.

Which languages are available, and what do the translated pages cover?

The Japanese page states that consultations are held in English and that WhatsApp enquiries are accepted in Japanese. The Chinese page states that Chinese communication is possible, including questions about the English pages by WhatsApp. If a language matters to you, say so when you enquire so that the team can plan around it.

Both translated pages cover the same ground in short form: that assessment comes before any procedure, the main areas of practice, how fees are decided, and where to ask questions. They are an introduction, not a substitute for the English pages, which carry the fuller detail on each treatment.

What should you bring, and how are fees handled?

Bring a list of your medicines and supplements, and records of previous aesthetic treatments: the product name, the areas treated and the dates. If you have no records, the assessment still proceeds, and that includes treatment done in another country; you can also ask your previous clinic for a copy of your record. If you are concerned about filler done elsewhere, the filler assessment page explains what is looked at.

Fees are quoted in writing after assessment, itemised by treatment, area and consumable, and the quote stands so that you can take it home. Singapore's rules restrict price advertising, so this page gives no figures. What moves a fee is the area, what the assessment finds, the product or device, whether treatments are combined and how the plan is staged, which is set out on the how fees are quoted page. A lower number elsewhere may describe a different plan, so compare what is included, who performs it and what review follows.