Medical tourism in Puebla, México

Why central México rather than a border city

Patients arriving from abroad are usually choosing between two models of care rather than two cities. One is built around the short trip and the high-volume schedule, which is what border cities are set up for. The other is a small practice where the surgeon who assesses you is the one who operates and the one who sees you at every follow-up. Puebla suits the second: the clinic is a fixed address in Bellavista — the same practice founded in 1971, now in its second generation — with its own operating theatre and recovery equipment under one roof.

Where you recover counts. Puebla is an inland colonial city, quiet and used to visitors, reached by road from Mexico City's international airport. The first week after surgery is not a holiday, and keeping still is easier somewhere calm.

Before you fly: the remote consultation, and what to bring

You can start remotely, in English or in Spanish. The first exchange covers your history, medication, previous surgery, what you want changed, and photographs you take yourself. That establishes whether the request is plausible, which family of procedure is likely and what stay it implies.

It does not diagnose you, choose a technique or price your case. Any procedure or treatment first requires a private assessment consultation with Dr. Arístides Arellano — $800 MXN, charged separately — and it is a physical examination: looking at skin, feeling tissue, measuring what is there. A decision that depends on how far a tissue moves under a hand is not made from a photograph.

You travel as a visitor: entry requirements are set by Mexican immigration authorities, not by a clinic, so confirm them yourself. Bring:

• A valid passport and whatever entry document your nationality requires.
• A written list of every medication and supplement you take, with doses, and every allergy.
• Operative reports, implant records and imaging from previous surgery. For a revision this is not optional — it changes what is possible.
• The name and contact details of a physician at home who can see you after you return.

Choosing between procedures before you arrive

The grid below says what is done here; it cannot say which is yours.

• Fat or loose skin. Liposuction and HD liposculpture remove fat and depend on the skin retracting. A tummy tuck removes skin and repairs the abdominal wall. They answer different findings, and the examination establishes the finding.
• Repositioning or skin quality. Blepharoplasty moves and removes tissue; it does not change the texture around it. When laxity reaches the mid-face or neck, a facelift addresses that, and the two are often planned together.
• One trip or several. A mommy makeover means one anaesthetic and one recovery, which suits a travel calendar; it also means a longer stay and more to recover from at once. It is decided clinically, not because flights work out better.
• Results that arrive after you leave. A hair transplant is judged at twelve to eighteen months: short trip, result developing at home. Rhinoplasty is similar — the splint comes off near day seven and the tip keeps refining for up to a year.

How long to stay, and who comes with you

There is no package length. Your departure date is set by a clinical milestone — suture or drain removal and the first in-person review — which Dr. Arístides Arellano fixes once he has seen the case. What follows is for planning a range, not a date.

Pre-operative laboratory work is included in the surgical price and is done here. Appointments are at Calle 20 Sur 2539, Col. Bellavista, 72500 Puebla, Monday to Friday 8:00–20:00 and Saturday 8:00–14:00, on +52 221 155 2228; see contact.

• Smaller and facial procedures. After blepharoplasty sutures come out around days five to seven; submental liposuction generally allows desk work in three to five days.
• Rhinoplasty. The splint is removed near day seven; visible swelling subsides over two to three weeks. Most patients fly home still swollen: normal, and better expected than discovered.
• Facelift and breast surgery. Sutures come out in the second week, generally the earliest sensible review point.
• Large body surgery. After a tummy tuck or a 360° body lift the first days are hospital stay or strict rest, with drains and sutures removed across the first two weeks. Here a compressed schedule is a real problem, not an inconvenience.
• Bring someone. In the first week the help is practical rather than social — the garment, the medication, the meals, the short walks — while you concentrate on keeping still.

Follow-up once you fly home

Follow-up is part of the procedure here and continues until discharge; it is not billed appointment by appointment. For someone who lives elsewhere part of it becomes remote: scheduled review by photograph and video, in English or Spanish, with the same practice.

Be clear about the limits. Remote review can watch a scar mature and answer the questions that arrive at week three. It cannot examine you, drain a seroma or manage a complication. That is the real cost of distance: it is why you are asked to have a physician at home who can see you, and why the honest answer to what if something goes wrong is that you would need care where you are.

Distance also thins the recovery side of the treatment. Lymphatic drainage, hyperbaric oxygen and scar laser are done here and covered by the surgical price; flying home early simply means fewer of them. Results may vary from patient to patient, and the recovery you complete is part of why.

When travelling for surgery is the wrong plan

Some cases should not be operated on a travel schedule. Saying so before you buy a ticket is cheaper for everyone.

• Revisions. A revision rhinoplasty or an implant exchange or removal is less predictable than a first operation: scar tissue, less material to work with, a higher chance the plan changes in theatre. These patients benefit most from having their surgeon nearby.
• Staged plans. Post-bariatric contouring and circumferential body work are often planned in stages months apart: several trips, not one, and budgeted that way.
• Unpredictable timelines. When healing or a medical condition makes the date uncertain, a fixed flight becomes pressure on a clinical decision.
• No in-person assessment. There is no remote route around it. If the trip cannot fit an examination before surgery is committed to, it is not ready.
• Health that needs attention first. Uncontrolled conditions, smoking, unstable weight and unrealistic expectations are reasons to postpone, wherever you live.

What it costs, and why the figure is in pesos

Every price on this site is in Mexican pesos and is approximate; none of it is a quote. The dollar equivalent depends on the exchange rate the day you pay and on your bank's conversion, which is why no dollar figure appears here: one published today would be wrong by the time you read it. Convert the peso figure yourself and treat it as an order of magnitude.

What that figure covers is worth reading: the surgical price is all-inclusive — theatre and facilities, pre-operative laboratory work and the post-surgical recovery treatments — not the surgeon's fee alone. It does not cover your flight, accommodation or the assessment consultation.

That assessment costs $800 MXN, is charged separately and is required before any procedure or treatment; it is there, with your case in front of him, that Dr. Arístides Arellano sets the definitive cost. The published list exists so you can plan; the consultation is where it becomes your number.

Who operates, and on what credentials

Dr. Arístides Arellano is a plastic surgeon holding a specialty licence: he practises under a Mexican medical licence (D.G.P. 1125959) and a specialty licence in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (0002008), both issued by the Directorate General of Professions (DGP). Trust is verified, not promised: both licences are public and anyone can look them up in the DGP's National Registry of Professionals.

He qualified as a médico cirujano at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco in 1986 and trained in plastic surgery at the Hospital General de Agudos Dr. Abel Zubizarreta in Buenos Aires, 1987–1989. Fellow of the International College of Surgeons since 1994; holder of United States patent 5,928,158 (USPTO, 1999). The documents are published as scans rather than described.

One distinction to keep straight: Dr. Arístides Arellano is a plastic surgeon. The dermatologic consultation — medical diagnosis and control of the skin — belongs to the clinic and to its 1971 lineage; the surgical and laser procedures are his. Consultation and surgery are conducted in Spanish or English.

Frequently asked questions

About Dr. Arístides Arellano

Dr. Arístides Arellano is a plastic surgeon holding a specialty licence: he practises under a Mexican medical licence (D.G.P. 1125959) and a specialty licence in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (0002008), both issued by the Directorate General of Professions (DGP), which reissued his certificate of professional standing in 2025. His career began before Mexico’s present-day specialty-board system existed: he belongs to the founding generation of plastic surgery in Puebla, the second generation of a surgical tradition started in 1971 by Dr. Francisco Arellano Ocampo. Trust is verified, not promised: both licences are public and anyone can look them up in the DGP’s National Registry of Professionals.

Educational content; it does not replace a medical consultation. Results may vary from person to person. Every published figure is approximate and is not a quote.