Blepharoplasty Cost: Australia vs Thailand, and When Medicare Applies

By Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689
Last reviewed: 28/AUG/2026

You looked in the mirror and the upper lids have started to sit on your lashes. Perhaps you have begun lifting your brows without meaning to, or noticed that you are tilting your chin up to read a road sign. Perhaps it is simply that you look tired in photographs when you are not tired.

Then you asked what it costs in Australia, and the answers came back somewhere between three thousand and eighteen thousand dollars depending on which page you landed on, with no explanation of the spread.

I am a plastic surgeon in Bangkok, so you would expect this article to end with an argument for coming here. For a good number of readers it will not. Eyelid surgery is the procedure where the case for travelling is weakest, and where the Medicare position at home is strongest. I would rather set that out clearly than have you spend money badly.

What eyelid surgery costs in Australia

Here is what named Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish.

SourceUpper blepharoplastyLower blepharoplastyUpper and lower combinedDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive)around A$6,000 in rooms under local; from A$8,300 in hospital under generalA$9,000–14,000approximately A$12,000–18,000Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydneyfrom A$4,500 incl. GSTfrom A$8,500 incl. GST—Dr Mark Kohout, SydneyA$3,000–8,000 depending on lids treated; A$4,500–11,500 once all fees are counted——

Dr Kohout's practice usefully breaks that down: surgeon's fees A$2,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees A$750–3,000, hospital or clinic fees A$1,000–2,500. Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two before surgery.

The spread is not surgeons disagreeing about the value of their work. It is mostly a question of where the operation happens. An upper blepharoplasty performed in a consulting suite under local anaesthetic has no hospital fee and no anaesthetist's fee. The same operation under general anaesthetic in a licensed private hospital acquires both. That single decision moves the price by thousands.

When Medicare does pay: MBS item 45617, exactly

This is the part of the article I most want you to read, because a proportion of the people searching "blepharoplasty cost Australia" are entitled to a rebate at home and do not know it.

MBS item 45617 covers upper eyelid reduction. Its current descriptor requires that:

• the reduction is for any of the following — (i) history of a demonstrated visual impairment; (ii) intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid; (iii) herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos; (iv) facial nerve palsy; (v) post-traumatic scarring; (vi) the restoration of symmetry of the contralateral upper eyelid in respect of one of the conditions in (i) to (v); and

• photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for the service is documented in the patient notes.

The schedule fee is A$281.40, with a 75% benefit of A$211.05 and an 85% benefit of A$239.20. The Extended Medicare Safety Net cap is A$225.15.

Two things follow from those numbers. First, the rebate itself is small — it will not meaningfully change the cost of your operation on its own. Second, and far more importantly, item eligibility is what allows private health insurance to contribute to hospital and theatre fees. That is where the real money is, and it is why the same operation costs so differently depending on whether an item number applies.

What the 2022 amendment changed, and why the internet has it wrong

You will read on many Australian pages that Medicare requires formal visual field testing confirmed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. That was true. It is no longer the descriptor.

The item was amended with effect from 1 November 2022. The mandatory visual field testing requirement was removed and replaced with a requirement that the practitioner document "a history of a demonstrated visual impairment" in the patient's notes. The photographic or diagnostic imaging requirement was retained.

I am flagging this precisely because so much of what is published about medical tourism is out of date, copied between sites, and never re-checked. Take the current descriptor to your Australian surgeon and let them assess you against it. If your lids obstruct your visual axis, if you are compensating with your brow, if you have chronic intertriginous inflammation in the lid fold — you may be eligible, and eligibility is decided in Australia, not here.

The case for having this done in Australia

If item 45617 applies to you and you hold private hospital cover at the relevant tier with waiting periods served, my honest view is that you should have this operation at home. Not because Bangkok surgery is unsafe, but because the arithmetic and the aftercare both favour Australia in this specific case.

Medicare does not cover overseas medical treatment. Australia has no reciprocal health care agreement with Thailand. Your private fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas, and may not cover follow-up at home either. Travelling means writing off an entitlement you have already paid premiums for.

There is a second reason, and it is clinical. Eyelid surgery is millimetre surgery on a structure that has to close over your cornea every few seconds for the rest of your life. The reviews that matter — at one week, six weeks, three months, a year — are easier to attend when your surgeon is in your city. Most patients never need more than reassurance at those visits. The ones who do need something more need it close by.

What we charge, in baht and Australian dollars

ProcedureTHBAUD (indicative)Double eyelid surgery (local anaesthetic)฿32,000A$1,400Upper and lower eyelid surgery (general anaesthetic)฿110,000A$4,800

AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one.

Both include airport transfer, pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified; it is not JCI-accredited), post-operative monitoring, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. Neither includes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is base price plus 30%.

Double eyelid surgery is a different operation

The A$1,400 / ฿32,000 line is not a cheaper version of an upper blepharoplasty. It is a different procedure with a different aim.

Double eyelid surgery creates or defines a supratarsal crease in an eyelid that does not have one, or has an inconsistent or partial one. It is performed by incisional or suture techniques and the design decisions — crease height, shape, whether the epicanthal fold is addressed — are aesthetic and cultural rather than functional. Getting it right requires a very specific conversation about what you want your eye to look like, and getting it wrong is highly visible.

An upper blepharoplasty for dermatochalasis removes redundant skin, and sometimes a conservative amount of orbital fat, from a lid that already has a crease. Different problem, different operation, different price.

If you are not sure which one you are asking about, that is the first thing to establish, before anyone quotes you anything.

The all-in comparison, once travel is counted

This is where eyelid surgery differs from body contouring, and where I will argue against my own commercial interest.

The gap between an Australian upper blepharoplasty in rooms — around A$6,000 at Dr Turner's practice, from A$4,500 at Dr Sandercoe's — and our double eyelid price of A$1,400 looks like a saving of several thousand dollars. Now add: two return airfares if you bring someone, accommodation and food beyond the package, a specialised medical travel insurance policy that actually covers elective surgery abroad, and lost income at the Australian full-time average of A$2,083.70 per week.

For a low-cost, short-recovery procedure, those additions can consume most or all of the apparent saving. The travel cost is roughly fixed regardless of what operation you have. On a A$7,000 abdominoplasty gap it is a modest fraction. On a A$4,000 eyelid gap it is most of it.

The economics only start to work if you are combining eyelid surgery with something substantial in the same trip — a face and neck lift, body contouring — so the travel is amortised across a larger procedure. If eyelid surgery is the only reason you would get on the plane, I would think very carefully, and I would get assessed against MBS 45617 first.

The complications, including the one that can cost you your sight

Every eyelid operation carries these, at any price, in any country.

Dry eye and grittiness are common early and usually settle, but can be persistent, particularly if you already have dry eye, have had laser refractive surgery, or take medications that reduce tear production. Lagophthalmos — incomplete closure of the lids — can follow over-resection of skin and can threaten the cornea. In lower lid surgery, ectropion and lower lid retraction, where the lid pulls away from or down off the globe, are the characteristic complications and can require further surgery to correct. Scleral show, a rounded or hollowed eye, and asymmetry between the two sides all occur. Unmasking or worsening of an unrecognised ptosis — a drooping upper lid from a levator problem rather than excess skin — is a specific trap, and is why the lid position is assessed separately from the skin before surgery. Chemosis, prolonged swelling, visible scarring, and altered sensation are all possible.

And the one that must never be softened: retrobulbar haematoma. Bleeding behind the eye raises orbital pressure and can cause permanent loss of vision. It is rare. It is a surgical emergency measured in hours, not days. Its symptoms are in the section below, and if you have them you go to hospital immediately.

Who I decline to operate on

Patients with significant untreated dry eye, until an ophthalmologist has assessed and managed it. Patients on anticoagulants that have not been reviewed and planned around with the prescribing doctor. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension, because bleeding risk in the orbit is not a hypothetical. Patients whose real problem is brow descent rather than lid skin, in whom removing lid skin will make things worse. And patients who bring in a photograph of someone else's eyes and want those eyes, because I cannot give them to you and I would rather say so before surgery than after.

When to seek care

Emergency — go to a hospital emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or in Australia, and do not wait for anyone to reply to a message. Sudden severe pain behind or around the eye, a hard or bulging eye, rapidly increasing swelling and bruising of the lid, any decrease in vision, double vision, or seeing flashes or a curtain across your vision. These may indicate retrobulbar haematoma or another sight-threatening problem, and time matters. Also emergency: fever above 38.5°C with a red, hot, swollen, painful lid and difficulty moving the eye, which may indicate orbital cellulitis.

Same-day review. Pain that is escalating after day two rather than settling; increasing redness of the lid; discharge from the wound; a wound edge separating; the eye not closing fully during sleep, particularly with a gritty, painful or watering eye on waking; a lower lid that has started to pull away from the eye.

Next available appointment, wherever you are. Persistent dryness beyond a few weeks, ongoing swelling, a lump in a scar, asymmetry between the two sides that is not settling by six to eight weeks, a crease height you are unhappy with, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. Eyelid surgery changes your face in a way you see every morning, and being unsettled by that is a real and legitimate thing to raise.

Note also that ASAPS advises patients in Australia and New Zealand are counselled not to fly for six to eight weeks after surgery. Overseas surgery necessarily compresses that, and your fitness to fly should be a clinical assessment made a few days beforehand — not a booking made months ago.

The question to answer before you book anything

Not "where is it cheaper." Ask instead: does MBS item 45617 apply to me?

Get assessed in Australia, against the current descriptor, by a doctor who will document your findings and take the photographs. If it applies and you have private cover, have the operation at home and keep your surgeon in your city. If it does not apply, then compare honestly — the whole cost of travelling, not the surgical fee — and be clear-eyed that on a procedure this size, the travel may cost more than it saves.

My credentials, if you want to check them: MD from Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University; Thai Board of General Surgery; Thai Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University; Medical Licence No. 17689; member of ISAPS since 2008; international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons; and an advanced blepharoplasty symposium in St Petersburg in 2022. ISAPS and ASPS are membership societies — they certify and accredit no one, and any clinic that tells you otherwise is misrepresenting a credential. Verify mine, and verify everybody else's.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.

Blepharoplasty Cost: Australia vs Thailand, and When Medicare Applies

By Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689
Last reviewed: AUGUEST 2026

You looked in the mirror and the upper lids have started to sit on your lashes. Perhaps you have begun lifting your brows without meaning to, or noticed that you are tilting your chin up to read a road sign. Perhaps it is simply that you look tired in photographs when you are not tired.

Then you asked what it costs in Australia, and the answers came back somewhere between three thousand and eighteen thousand dollars depending on which page you landed on, with no explanation of the spread.

I am a plastic surgeon in Bangkok, so you would expect this article to end with an argument for coming here. For a good number of readers it will not. Eyelid surgery is the procedure where the case for travelling is weakest, and where the Medicare position at home is strongest. I would rather set that out clearly than have you spend money badly.

What eyelid surgery costs in Australia

Here is what named Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish.

SourceUpper blepharoplastyLower blepharoplastyUpper and lower combinedDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive)around A$6,000 in rooms under local; from A$8,300 in hospital under generalA$9,000–14,000approximately A$12,000–18,000Dr Gavin Sandercoe, Sydneyfrom A$4,500 incl. GSTfrom A$8,500 incl. GST—Dr Mark Kohout, SydneyA$3,000–8,000 depending on lids treated; A$4,500–11,500 once all fees are counted——

Dr Kohout's practice usefully breaks that down: surgeon's fees A$2,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees A$750–3,000, hospital or clinic fees A$1,000–2,500. Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two before surgery.

The spread is not surgeons disagreeing about the value of their work. It is mostly a question of where the operation happens. An upper blepharoplasty performed in a consulting suite under local anaesthetic has no hospital fee and no anaesthetist's fee. The same operation under general anaesthetic in a licensed private hospital acquires both. That single decision moves the price by thousands.

When Medicare does pay: MBS item 45617, exactly

This is the part of the article I most want you to read, because a proportion of the people searching "blepharoplasty cost Australia" are entitled to a rebate at home and do not know it.

MBS item 45617 covers upper eyelid reduction. Its current descriptor requires that:

• the reduction is for any of the following — (i) history of a demonstrated visual impairment; (ii) intertriginous inflammation of the eyelid; (iii) herniation of orbital fat in exophthalmos; (iv) facial nerve palsy; (v) post-traumatic scarring; (vi) the restoration of symmetry of the contralateral upper eyelid in respect of one of the conditions in (i) to (v); and

• photographic and/or diagnostic imaging evidence demonstrating the clinical need for the service is documented in the patient notes.

The schedule fee is A$281.40, with a 75% benefit of A$211.05 and an 85% benefit of A$239.20. The Extended Medicare Safety Net cap is A$225.15.

Two things follow from those numbers. First, the rebate itself is small — it will not meaningfully change the cost of your operation on its own. Second, and far more importantly, item eligibility is what allows private health insurance to contribute to hospital and theatre fees. That is where the real money is, and it is why the same operation costs so differently depending on whether an item number applies.

What the 2022 amendment changed, and why the internet has it wrong

You will read on many Australian pages that Medicare requires formal visual field testing confirmed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. That was true. It is no longer the descriptor.

The item was amended with effect from 1 November 2022. The mandatory visual field testing requirement was removed and replaced with a requirement that the practitioner document "a history of a demonstrated visual impairment" in the patient's notes. The photographic or diagnostic imaging requirement was retained.

I am flagging this precisely because so much of what is published about medical tourism is out of date, copied between sites, and never re-checked. Take the current descriptor to your Australian surgeon and let them assess you against it. If your lids obstruct your visual axis, if you are compensating with your brow, if you have chronic intertriginous inflammation in the lid fold — you may be eligible, and eligibility is decided in Australia, not here.

The case for having this done in Australia

If item 45617 applies to you and you hold private hospital cover at the relevant tier with waiting periods served, my honest view is that you should have this operation at home. Not because Bangkok surgery is unsafe, but because the arithmetic and the aftercare both favour Australia in this specific case.

Medicare does not cover overseas medical treatment. Australia has no reciprocal health care agreement with Thailand. Your private fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas, and may not cover follow-up at home either. Travelling means writing off an entitlement you have already paid premiums for.

There is a second reason, and it is clinical. Eyelid surgery is millimetre surgery on a structure that has to close over your cornea every few seconds for the rest of your life. The reviews that matter — at one week, six weeks, three months, a year — are easier to attend when your surgeon is in your city. Most patients never need more than reassurance at those visits. The ones who do need something more need it close by.

What we charge, in baht and Australian dollars

ProcedureTHBAUD (indicative)Double eyelid surgery (local anaesthetic)฿32,000A$1,400Upper and lower eyelid surgery (general anaesthetic)฿110,000A$4,800

AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one.

Both include airport transfer, pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified; it is not JCI-accredited), post-operative monitoring, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. Neither includes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income or follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is base price plus 30%.

Double eyelid surgery is a different operation

The A$1,400 / ฿32,000 line is not a cheaper version of an upper blepharoplasty. It is a different procedure with a different aim.

Double eyelid surgery creates or defines a supratarsal crease in an eyelid that does not have one, or has an inconsistent or partial one. It is performed by incisional or suture techniques and the design decisions — crease height, shape, whether the epicanthal fold is addressed — are aesthetic and cultural rather than functional. Getting it right requires a very specific conversation about what you want your eye to look like, and getting it wrong is highly visible.

An upper blepharoplasty for dermatochalasis removes redundant skin, and sometimes a conservative amount of orbital fat, from a lid that already has a crease. Different problem, different operation, different price.

If you are not sure which one you are asking about, that is the first thing to establish, before anyone quotes you anything.

The all-in comparison, once travel is counted

This is where eyelid surgery differs from body contouring, and where I will argue against my own commercial interest.

The gap between an Australian upper blepharoplasty in rooms — around A$6,000 at Dr Turner's practice, from A$4,500 at Dr Sandercoe's — and our double eyelid price of A$1,400 looks like a saving of several thousand dollars. Now add: two return airfares if you bring someone, accommodation and food beyond the package, a specialised medical travel insurance policy that actually covers elective surgery abroad, and lost income at the Australian full-time average of A$2,083.70 per week.

For a low-cost, short-recovery procedure, those additions can consume most or all of the apparent saving. The travel cost is roughly fixed regardless of what operation you have. On a A$7,000 abdominoplasty gap it is a modest fraction. On a A$4,000 eyelid gap it is most of it.

The economics only start to work if you are combining eyelid surgery with something substantial in the same trip — a face and neck lift, body contouring — so the travel is amortised across a larger procedure. If eyelid surgery is the only reason you would get on the plane, I would think very carefully, and I would get assessed against MBS 45617 first.

The complications, including the one that can cost you your sight

Every eyelid operation carries these, at any price, in any country.

Dry eye and grittiness are common early and usually settle, but can be persistent, particularly if you already have dry eye, have had laser refractive surgery, or take medications that reduce tear production. Lagophthalmos — incomplete closure of the lids — can follow over-resection of skin and can threaten the cornea. In lower lid surgery, ectropion and lower lid retraction, where the lid pulls away from or down off the globe, are the characteristic complications and can require further surgery to correct. Scleral show, a rounded or hollowed eye, and asymmetry between the two sides all occur. Unmasking or worsening of an unrecognised ptosis — a drooping upper lid from a levator problem rather than excess skin — is a specific trap, and is why the lid position is assessed separately from the skin before surgery. Chemosis, prolonged swelling, visible scarring, and altered sensation are all possible.

And the one that must never be softened: retrobulbar haematoma. Bleeding behind the eye raises orbital pressure and can cause permanent loss of vision. It is rare. It is a surgical emergency measured in hours, not days. Its symptoms are in the section below, and if you have them you go to hospital immediately.

Who I decline to operate on

Patients with significant untreated dry eye, until an ophthalmologist has assessed and managed it. Patients on anticoagulants that have not been reviewed and planned around with the prescribing doctor. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension, because bleeding risk in the orbit is not a hypothetical. Patients whose real problem is brow descent rather than lid skin, in whom removing lid skin will make things worse. And patients who bring in a photograph of someone else's eyes and want those eyes, because I cannot give them to you and I would rather say so before surgery than after.

When to seek care

Emergency — go to a hospital emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or in Australia, and do not wait for anyone to reply to a message. Sudden severe pain behind or around the eye, a hard or bulging eye, rapidly increasing swelling and bruising of the lid, any decrease in vision, double vision, or seeing flashes or a curtain across your vision. These may indicate retrobulbar haematoma or another sight-threatening problem, and time matters. Also emergency: fever above 38.5°C with a red, hot, swollen, painful lid and difficulty moving the eye, which may indicate orbital cellulitis.

Same-day review. Pain that is escalating after day two rather than settling; increasing redness of the lid; discharge from the wound; a wound edge separating; the eye not closing fully during sleep, particularly with a gritty, painful or watering eye on waking; a lower lid that has started to pull away from the eye.

Next available appointment, wherever you are. Persistent dryness beyond a few weeks, ongoing swelling, a lump in a scar, asymmetry between the two sides that is not settling by six to eight weeks, a crease height you are unhappy with, or a result you are technically fine with and emotionally disappointed by. Eyelid surgery changes your face in a way you see every morning, and being unsettled by that is a real and legitimate thing to raise.

Note also that ASAPS advises patients in Australia and New Zealand are counselled not to fly for six to eight weeks after surgery. Overseas surgery necessarily compresses that, and your fitness to fly should be a clinical assessment made a few days beforehand — not a booking made months ago.

The question to answer before you book anything

Not "where is it cheaper." Ask instead: does MBS item 45617 apply to me?

Get assessed in Australia, against the current descriptor, by a doctor who will document your findings and take the photographs. If it applies and you have private cover, have the operation at home and keep your surgeon in your city. If it does not apply, then compare honestly — the whole cost of travelling, not the surgical fee — and be clear-eyed that on a procedure this size, the travel may cost more than it saves.

My credentials, if you want to check them: MD from Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University; Thai Board of General Surgery; Thai Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University; Medical Licence No. 17689; member of ISAPS since 2008; international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons; and an advanced blepharoplasty symposium in St Petersburg in 2022. ISAPS and ASPS are membership societies — they certify and accredit no one, and any clinic that tells you otherwise is misrepresenting a credential. Verify mine, and verify everybody else's.

Dr. Rushapol Sdawat (known to international patients as Dr. Dominic) is a Thai Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon practising at Intrarat Hospital, Bangkok, Medical Licence No. 17689. He holds Thai Board certification in General Surgery (Phramongkutklao Hospital) and in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University), has been a member of ISAPS since 2008 and is an international member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Rushapol holds Thai specialist certification; he is not registered with Ahpra and does not hold Australian or New Zealand specialist registration. His registration can be verified on the Medical Council of Thailand register at checkmd.tmc.or.th.

This article is provided for general information and education. It is not medical advice and cannot substitute for individual assessment by a qualified practitioner who knows your history. Surgery carries risk, including risk of serious complications and of outcomes that do not meet expectations. Results vary between patients.