The popularity of aesthetic procedures has blossomed in recent years, attributable to its relatively low cost, minimal downtime, and marked cosmetic enhancements. In order for you, the consumer and patient, to get the best results, here are some questions you should always remember to ask yourself when determining where to go for your treatments:
1) Who can do these procedures?
• Can. In the state of Florida, any physician (M.D.), dentist (D.M.D.), osteopath (D.O.) can do any of these procedures. In addition, under specified medical supervision, a nurse practitioner and a physician assistant can perform these treatments as well.
• Cannot. A nurse, aesthetician, medical assistant, is NOT ALLOWED to perform any these procedures. The state of Florida is trying to ensure the safety of the general population and has stricter laws than neighboring states.
2) How do I pick which physician, dentist, or osteopath to go to?
• Experience: You have to look at experience and expertise. If you are getting work done on your face, it’s my humble opinion that a Facial Plastic Surgeon/Head and Neck Surgeon is the most qualified. These surgeons spend their entire residency operating on the face and neck area.
• Training: You also should look at where your doctor’s training was done. Large, prestigious institutions are the most desirable and most difficult residencies to get accept to. See if they are board certified. There are several boards that are not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
3) What qualifies a physician’s experience as good?
• For example: When considering experience, let’s talk about BOTOX cosmetic, the most popular cosmetic procedure. There are several levels of recognition by Allergan (the makers of BOTOX) which are based on number of vials of BOTOX used. They are, in order of low to high – Silver, Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus, and Diamond. For a physician to ask you to get “your friends together” to share a vial of BOTOX, or to give him time to “order the BOTOX for you”, you have got to worry that their BOTOX volume is very low.
• Trainer, not Trainee. If a physician is training other physicians and hired by companies to do this, he/she has shown superior results and expertise in these procedures. This is another qualification one should look for.
4) How should cost of the procedure factor into the decision-making process?
Don’t choose solely on price. With the boom in cosmetic procedures, every provider is jumping on the band wagon. Most times, the poorly qualified providers can only compete on price. When considering who to go to, remember it’s your face, and this is what people see every day. Although, I wouldn’t suggest going to anyone that is not competitive, it doesn’t make sense to strictly choose a physician based on price. Poor results or unsatisfactory outcomes can ultimately cost you more to correct, or give you prolonged grief.
5) Questions to ask your doctor:
• Who, What, Where?: If you are getting laser procedures done, ask your physician what his/her training was and for how long they have been using lasers. It’s very important, particularly for aggressive lasers like the Fraxel re:pair CO2, that the physician is extremely experienced.
• Ask to see pictures of results of patients that your physician has done. It is even better if your physician’s results are being used by the companies to highlight. This is extremely important. Results can vary significantly between physicians.
