Breast Augmentation and Lift Cost in Thailand: An AUD Price Guide
Real AUD and THB prices by implant brand and generation from a Bangkok plastic surgeon, with Australian comparisons and the reoperation cost nobody quotes.
By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: 28 / AUG / 2026
You have worked out by now that "breast augmentation" is not one price, because you have seen four quotes with four different numbers and none of them told you which implant they included. You have probably also worked out that the implant names — Mentor, Motiva, SilkSurface, Ergonomix — are being used as tiers on a price list without anyone explaining what moves between them.
I want to fix that. Below are our real prices in baht and Australian dollars, what actually differs between the implant tiers, and — the part that matters more — when the cheapest implant on our list is the better clinical choice for a particular patient. It often is.
I also want to put something at the front rather than bury it. The United States Food and Drug Administration's position is unambiguous: "Breast implants are not lifetime devices. The longer a woman has implants, the more likely it is that she will need to have surgery to remove or replace them." Whatever you pay today, you are very likely buying at least one more operation over the following decades. Budget for the device, and budget for the fact that it is not permanent.
What we charge, by implant tier
Procedure and implantTHBAUD (indicative)Breast augmentation, round gel implants (Mentor)฿125,000A$5,500Breast augmentation, Silk Surface Plus (Motiva)฿145,000A$6,400Breast augmentation, Round Ergonomix (Motiva)฿166,000A$7,300Breast augmentation, Ergonomix V.2฿250,000A$10,900Breast lift with implants (3rd degree ptosis)฿240,000A$10,500Breast reduction฿220,000–310,000A$9,600–13,500
AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one, and the implied rate is not identical across every line, so please do not apply a single conversion formula yourself.
Each price includes airport transfer, a pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified — it is not JCI-accredited and we do not say it is), monitoring in ICU on the first night, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. It excludes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income and any follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is priced at base plus 30%.
What actually differs between the tiers
Here is what the manufacturers claim, stated as claims rather than as findings.
Motiva describes its SilkSurface / SmoothSilk shell as "a controlled uniform surface" designed to "mitigate the inflammatory and fibrotic response of your body," "limit bacterial load, reducing the risk of biofilm formation," and "reduce the prevalence of chronic inflammatory complications." Ergonomix uses a more viscoelastic gel which Motiva says allows the implant to "hold a round shape when the patient is lying down and form a natural looking teardrop shape when she is standing." Ergonomix2 is described as softer again, with greater elongation and higher compressibility, "facilitating the insertion of the device through smaller incisions."
Mentor's round gel implants are a long-established device from a major manufacturer with a substantial published clinical record accumulated over decades.
Now the honest part. Newer generations of implant are newer. That is the whole of their disadvantage and it is not a small one: the comparative long-term data — capsular contracture rates at fifteen years, rupture rates at twenty — necessarily favours the devices that have been in patients longest, because those are the only ones with fifteen and twenty year data. A softer gel and a refined shell are plausible improvements. They are not yet improvements demonstrated over the timeframe you will be living with the device.
So the tiers are not a quality ladder from bad to good. They are a set of trade-offs.
When the cheapest implant on our list is the right choice
I put a Mentor round gel implant in patients where it is the better answer, and it is the better answer more often than the pricing implies. Specifically:
Where you have generous native breast tissue. A well-covered implant is not palpable and its gel cohesivity contributes little to the visible result. You are paying for a property you will not be able to detect.
Where you are having a submuscular placement with good soft tissue cover and the muscle, not the gel, determines the upper pole shape.
Where budget matters and the difference would come out of your contingency fund. An extra A$1,800 spent on a shell technology, taken from the money that would have paid for an extra week in Bangkok if your wound is slow to seal, is a bad trade. I will say so.
Where you want the device with the longest track record and are willing to forgo newer features to get it. That is a defensible, informed preference and I have never argued a patient out of it.
Where I do lean towards the Motiva devices: thin soft tissue cover, a subglandular or dual-plane placement where the implant edge risks being visible or palpable, a patient with a strong preference for a more mobile, tissue-like feel, and revision cases where the capsule and soft tissue are already compromised.
None of that is a guarantee about your result. Implant choice influences feel and edge visibility. Your existing tissue, your chest wall shape, your skin quality and how you heal will do more to determine what you see in the mirror than the brand will.
Lift, lift with implants, and reduction are different operations
A great many people searching for "augmentation" actually need a mastopexy — a lift. If the nipple sits at or below the inframammary fold, an implant alone will not raise it; it will produce a larger breast with the same descent, and often a worse shape. The lift is a skin and parenchymal rearrangement with a permanent scar around the areola, usually vertically down to the fold, and often horizontally along it. Our breast lift with implants for third-degree ptosis is ฿240,000 / A$10,500.
Breast reduction (฿220,000–310,000 / A$9,600–13,500) is a functional operation dressed as a cosmetic one, and it is the operation in this article most likely to be better done at home. More on that below.
What Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish
ProcedureDr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive)Plastic Surgery Hub (national)Dr Ellis Choy, SydneyBreast augmentationfrom A$11,000A$6,000–12,000A$9,000–15,000Breast lift (mastopexy)from A$13,950A$11,990–15,700—Breast lift with implantsA$24,900–25,750A$12,000–18,000—Breast reductionA$18,600–23,250A$10,000–30,000—Hybrid (implant plus fat)A$15,600–16,450—A$14,000–25,000
Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two; Dr Choy lists A$350. Plastic Surgery Hub breaks its augmentation range into surgeon's fees of A$3,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees of A$1,000–2,000 and hospital fees of A$1,500–4,000 — useful, because it shows you how much of an Australian quote is not the surgeon.
The candour passage: breast reduction, and why you may want it done in Australia
Breast reduction in Australia may attract MBS item 45523 — "reduction mammaplasty (bilateral) with surgical repositioning of the nipple" — where you have macromastia and documented neck or shoulder pain with evidence of attempted conservative management. Implants cannot be inserted in the same operation and still qualify. [CONFIRM: current MBS 45523 schedule fee and 75% benefit amount]; Dr Turner's practice describes the rebate as "just over $1,000" and, more importantly, states that item eligibility combined with private health cover can "reduce total out-of-pocket cost by $5,000 or more" by bringing hospital and anaesthetic fees under your fund.
If that describes you — and if you have private cover with the relevant hospital tier and have served your waiting period — you should be assessed in Australia before you consider coming here. Medicare does not cover overseas treatment, Australia has no reciprocal health agreement with Thailand, and your fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas. Travelling forfeits an entitlement you have already paid for, and you would be swapping a surgeon in your own city for one nine hours away.
I am aware of what that paragraph costs me. I would rather write it than have you find out afterwards.
Implants are not lifetime devices, and that is a future cost
The FDA lists capsular contracture, reoperation, and implant removal with or without replacement as the most frequent complications of breast implants. Reoperation is on that list not as a rare disaster but as an expected event over a long enough horizon.
Practically: assume that at some point you will need imaging surveillance, and that at some point — years or decades out — you may need an exchange or an explantation. Price that into the decision now. If a second operation in fifteen years would be financially impossible for you, that is a genuine reason to think harder about having the first one.
BIA-ALCL, texture, and what is actually known
Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a rare lymphoma of the capsule around an implant, not a breast cancer. Australian public health information states that people with highly textured implants "seem to be at the greatest risk (between 1 in 2,500 and 1 in 25,000)" and that "this risk significantly decreases with a decrease in texturing of the implant." Nearly all diagnoses are made between three and fourteen years after surgery, with an average of around eight years.
What that means for you: the surface of the device you receive is a legitimate question to ask your surgeon, and you should ask it and get a specific answer, not a reassurance. It also means late-onset swelling of one breast years after your surgery is never something to ignore.
The complications I discuss with every augmentation patient
Bleeding and haematoma requiring a return to theatre. Infection, which in an implant patient can mean removal of the device. Capsular contracture — the scar shell tightening around the implant, causing firmness, distortion and pain — which can occur at any time and can recur after correction. Rupture, silent in silicone implants and typically found on imaging. Rippling and palpable edges, particularly with thin tissue cover. Loss or alteration of nipple sensation, sometimes permanent. Asymmetry, which is universal to some degree because you were asymmetric before surgery. Malposition, bottoming out, and implant descent over years. Scarring that is hypertrophic or keloid. Interference with breastfeeding, and altered mammographic imaging requiring additional views. Venous thromboembolism.
And the one that is rarely listed: a result that is technically correct and emotionally disappointing. It happens, it is not a failure of character, and it is worth raising before surgery rather than after.
When to seek care
Emergency — nearest emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or Australia, without waiting for a reply from anyone. Sudden breathlessness, chest pain, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf — signs of venous thromboembolism, which can occur days to weeks after surgery, including in flight and after you land. Tell the cabin crew if you are airborne. Also: one breast rapidly enlarging, becoming tense, hard and painful within hours, which suggests haematoma; fever above 38.5°C with rigors; or skin over the breast turning dusky, grey or black.
Same-day review. Escalating pain after day three; spreading redness over the breast; a wound edge separating or discharging pus; the nipple turning white, blue or black; fever; or a sudden change in the shape or position of one implant.
Next available appointment, wherever you are. Firmness developing over weeks to months, which may be capsular contracture; rippling or a palpable edge; asymmetry that is not settling; persistent altered sensation; a lump in a scar.
Years later, and this one matters. New swelling of one breast, a lump, or a fluid collection appearing months or years after your surgery should be assessed promptly by a doctor who knows you have implants. Tell them the brand, the surface and the date. Keep your implant card.
How to read an implant quote
Ask which device, in writing: manufacturer, product line, surface, volume and projection. Ask for the implant card and the lot numbers at discharge, and keep them somewhere you will still have them in fifteen years. Ask what the price includes and what it excludes. Ask who administers your anaesthetic, and ask what happens if you need a reoperation after you have flown home, including who pays.
And ask the surgeon to tell you what they think you actually need, before you tell them what you want. If the answer is a lift rather than an implant, or a smaller implant than you had in mind, or nothing at all this year, that answer is worth more than the price difference between any two devices on the list above.
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.
Breast Augmentation and Lift Cost in Thailand: An AUD Price Guide
Real AUD and THB prices by implant brand and generation from a Bangkok plastic surgeon, with Australian comparisons and the reoperation cost nobody quotes.
By the MedSanctuary Team
Medically reviewed by Dr. Rushapol Sdawat, MD — Thai Board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, Medical Licence No. 17689 · Last reviewed: [SET DATE ON PUBLISH]
You have worked out by now that "breast augmentation" is not one price, because you have seen four quotes with four different numbers and none of them told you which implant they included. You have probably also worked out that the implant names — Mentor, Motiva, SilkSurface, Ergonomix — are being used as tiers on a price list without anyone explaining what moves between them.
I want to fix that. Below are our real prices in baht and Australian dollars, what actually differs between the implant tiers, and — the part that matters more — when the cheapest implant on our list is the better clinical choice for a particular patient. It often is.
I also want to put something at the front rather than bury it. The United States Food and Drug Administration's position is unambiguous: "Breast implants are not lifetime devices. The longer a woman has implants, the more likely it is that she will need to have surgery to remove or replace them." Whatever you pay today, you are very likely buying at least one more operation over the following decades. Budget for the device, and budget for the fact that it is not permanent.
What we charge, by implant tier
| Procedure and implant | THB | AUD (indicative) |
|---|---|---|
| Breast augmentation, round gel implants (Mentor) | ฿125,000 | A$5,500 |
| Breast augmentation, Silk Surface Plus (Motiva) | ฿145,000 | A$6,400 |
| Breast augmentation, Round Ergonomix (Motiva) | ฿166,000 | A$7,300 |
| Breast augmentation, Ergonomix V.2 | ฿250,000 | A$10,900 |
| Breast lift with implants (3rd degree ptosis) | ฿240,000 | A$10,500 |
| Breast reduction | ฿220,000–310,000 | A$9,600–13,500 |
AUD figures are indicative, converted from Thai baht at approximately 23 THB/AUD, and confirmed at booking. The baht figure is the contracted one, and the implied rate is not identical across every line, so please do not apply a single conversion formula yourself.
Each price includes airport transfer, a pre-operative health check, anaesthesia, surgery at Intrarat Hospital (ISO 9001:2015 certified — it is not JCI-accredited and we do not say it is), monitoring in ICU on the first night, a serviced apartment, take-home medications, IV therapy, red light therapy, lymphatic massage and coordinator support. It excludes airfares, a support person, food, insurance, lost income and any follow-up in Australia. A revision case originating from another hospital is priced at base plus 30%.
What actually differs between the tiers
Here is what the manufacturers claim, stated as claims rather than as findings.
Motiva describes its SilkSurface / SmoothSilk shell as "a controlled uniform surface" designed to "mitigate the inflammatory and fibrotic response of your body," "limit bacterial load, reducing the risk of biofilm formation," and "reduce the prevalence of chronic inflammatory complications." Ergonomix uses a more viscoelastic gel which Motiva says allows the implant to "hold a round shape when the patient is lying down and form a natural looking teardrop shape when she is standing." Ergonomix2 is described as softer again, with greater elongation and higher compressibility, "facilitating the insertion of the device through smaller incisions."
Mentor's round gel implants are a long-established device from a major manufacturer with a substantial published clinical record accumulated over decades.
Now the honest part. Newer generations of implant are newer. That is the whole of their disadvantage and it is not a small one: the comparative long-term data — capsular contracture rates at fifteen years, rupture rates at twenty — necessarily favours the devices that have been in patients longest, because those are the only ones with fifteen and twenty year data. A softer gel and a refined shell are plausible improvements. They are not yet improvements demonstrated over the timeframe you will be living with the device.
So the tiers are not a quality ladder from bad to good. They are a set of trade-offs.
When the cheapest implant on our list is the right choice
I put a Mentor round gel implant in patients where it is the better answer, and it is the better answer more often than the pricing implies. Specifically:
- Where you have generous native breast tissue. A well-covered implant is not palpable and its gel cohesivity contributes little to the visible result. You are paying for a property you will not be able to detect.
- Where you are having a submuscular placement with good soft tissue cover and the muscle, not the gel, determines the upper pole shape.
- Where budget matters and the difference would come out of your contingency fund. An extra A$1,800 spent on a shell technology, taken from the money that would have paid for an extra week in Bangkok if your wound is slow to seal, is a bad trade. I will say so.
- Where you want the device with the longest track record and are willing to forgo newer features to get it. That is a defensible, informed preference and I have never argued a patient out of it.
Where I do lean towards the Motiva devices: thin soft tissue cover, a subglandular or dual-plane placement where the implant edge risks being visible or palpable, a patient with a strong preference for a more mobile, tissue-like feel, and revision cases where the capsule and soft tissue are already compromised.
None of that is a guarantee about your result. Implant choice influences feel and edge visibility. Your existing tissue, your chest wall shape, your skin quality and how you heal will do more to determine what you see in the mirror than the brand will.
Lift, lift with implants, and reduction are different operations
A great many people searching for "augmentation" actually need a mastopexy — a lift. If the nipple sits at or below the inframammary fold, an implant alone will not raise it; it will produce a larger breast with the same descent, and often a worse shape. The lift is a skin and parenchymal rearrangement with a permanent scar around the areola, usually vertically down to the fold, and often horizontally along it. Our breast lift with implants for third-degree ptosis is ฿240,000 / A$10,500.
Breast reduction (฿220,000–310,000 / A$9,600–13,500) is a functional operation dressed as a cosmetic one, and it is the operation in this article most likely to be better done at home. More on that below.
What Australian specialist plastic surgeons publish
| Procedure | Dr Scott J Turner, Sydney (all-inclusive) | Plastic Surgery Hub (national) | Dr Ellis Choy, Sydney |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breast augmentation | from A$11,000 | A$6,000–12,000 | A$9,000–15,000 |
| Breast lift (mastopexy) | from A$13,950 | A$11,990–15,700 | — |
| Breast lift with implants | A$24,900–25,750 | A$12,000–18,000 | — |
| Breast reduction | A$18,600–23,250 | A$10,000–30,000 | — |
| Hybrid (implant plus fat) | A$15,600–16,450 | — | A$14,000–25,000 |
Dr Turner charges A$450 per consultation and requires two; Dr Choy lists A$350. Plastic Surgery Hub breaks its augmentation range into surgeon's fees of A$3,500–6,000, anaesthetist's fees of A$1,000–2,000 and hospital fees of A$1,500–4,000 — useful, because it shows you how much of an Australian quote is not the surgeon.
The candour passage: breast reduction, and why you may want it done in Australia
Breast reduction in Australia may attract MBS item 45523 — "reduction mammaplasty (bilateral) with surgical repositioning of the nipple" — where you have macromastia and documented neck or shoulder pain with evidence of attempted conservative management. Implants cannot be inserted in the same operation and still qualify. [CONFIRM: current MBS 45523 schedule fee and 75% benefit amount]; Dr Turner's practice describes the rebate as "just over $1,000" and, more importantly, states that item eligibility combined with private health cover can "reduce total out-of-pocket cost by $5,000 or more" by bringing hospital and anaesthetic fees under your fund.
If that describes you — and if you have private cover with the relevant hospital tier and have served your waiting period — you should be assessed in Australia before you consider coming here. Medicare does not cover overseas treatment, Australia has no reciprocal health agreement with Thailand, and your fund is generally unlikely to cover a procedure performed overseas. Travelling forfeits an entitlement you have already paid for, and you would be swapping a surgeon in your own city for one nine hours away.
I am aware of what that paragraph costs me. I would rather write it than have you find out afterwards.
Implants are not lifetime devices, and that is a future cost
The FDA lists capsular contracture, reoperation, and implant removal with or without replacement as the most frequent complications of breast implants. Reoperation is on that list not as a rare disaster but as an expected event over a long enough horizon.
Practically: assume that at some point you will need imaging surveillance, and that at some point — years or decades out — you may need an exchange or an explantation. Price that into the decision now. If a second operation in fifteen years would be financially impossible for you, that is a genuine reason to think harder about having the first one.
BIA-ALCL, texture, and what is actually known
Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a rare lymphoma of the capsule around an implant, not a breast cancer. Australian public health information states that people with highly textured implants "seem to be at the greatest risk (between 1 in 2,500 and 1 in 25,000)" and that "this risk significantly decreases with a decrease in texturing of the implant." Nearly all diagnoses are made between three and fourteen years after surgery, with an average of around eight years.
What that means for you: the surface of the device you receive is a legitimate question to ask your surgeon, and you should ask it and get a specific answer, not a reassurance. It also means late-onset swelling of one breast years after your surgery is never something to ignore.
The complications I discuss with every augmentation patient
Bleeding and haematoma requiring a return to theatre. Infection, which in an implant patient can mean removal of the device. Capsular contracture — the scar shell tightening around the implant, causing firmness, distortion and pain — which can occur at any time and can recur after correction. Rupture, silent in silicone implants and typically found on imaging. Rippling and palpable edges, particularly with thin tissue cover. Loss or alteration of nipple sensation, sometimes permanent. Asymmetry, which is universal to some degree because you were asymmetric before surgery. Malposition, bottoming out, and implant descent over years. Scarring that is hypertrophic or keloid. Interference with breastfeeding, and altered mammographic imaging requiring additional views. Venous thromboembolism.
And the one that is rarely listed: a result that is technically correct and emotionally disappointing. It happens, it is not a failure of character, and it is worth raising before surgery rather than after.
When to seek care
Emergency — nearest emergency department immediately, in Bangkok or Australia, without waiting for a reply from anyone. Sudden breathlessness, chest pain, coughing blood, or a hot, swollen, painful calf — signs of venous thromboembolism, which can occur days to weeks after surgery, including in flight and after you land. Tell the cabin crew if you are airborne. Also: one breast rapidly enlarging, becoming tense, hard and painful within hours, which suggests haematoma; fever above 38.5°C with rigors; or skin over the breast turning dusky, grey or black.
Same-day review. Escalating pain after day three; spreading redness over the breast; a wound edge separating or discharging pus; the nipple turning white, blue or black; fever; or a sudden change in the shape or position of one implant.
Next available appointment, wherever you are. Firmness developing over weeks to months, which may be capsular contracture; rippling or a palpable edge; asymmetry that is not settling; persistent altered sensation; a lump in a scar.
Years later, and this one matters. New swelling of one breast, a lump, or a fluid collection appearing months or years after your surgery should be assessed promptly by a doctor who knows you have implants. Tell them the brand, the surface and the date. Keep your implant card.
How to read an implant quote
Ask which device, in writing: manufacturer, product line, surface, volume and projection. Ask for the implant card and the lot numbers at discharge, and keep them somewhere you will still have them in fifteen years. Ask what the price includes and what it excludes. Ask who administers your anaesthetic, and ask what happens if you need a reoperation after you have flown home, including who pays.
And ask the surgeon to tell you what they think you actually need, before you tell them what you want. If the answer is a lift rather than an implant, or a smaller implant than you had in mind, or nothing at all this year, that answer is worth more than the price difference between any two devices on the list above.
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.
