Medical Aesthetics Practices Behind-the-Scenes
One of the most important things to me when I practice is transparency in the treatment room. I’m always baffled when a patient comes in and says that they had a consult somewhere else, and they have no idea what the other provider recommended. Even worse, is when I see a patient for a consultation who was treated somewhere else and doesn’t know what the provider did. What?!?! Are you for real?!?! This is your face! You had better be darned sure that if I am letting someone poke holes in or fire a laser at my face, I will ask a ton of questions and I will be almost as knowledgeable as the provider BEFORE it happens. I prefer my patients to be well informed about everything happening, but often the behind-the-scenes stuff goes unmentioned. We put a lot of time, energy, and effort into being able to provide the best possible service. From device selection, to training, to choosing monthly specials, and more, I’m ready to give you a behind the scenes look at how we are able to provide consistent, superior services.
Complying with State Standards
Because we are a medical facility, we need to comply with State practice standards and licensure requirements. That means that everyone who fires a laser has to be certified to do so and has to renew certification yearly. Everyone who injects must have a nursing license and be specially trained and certified in aesthetic injectables. Anyone who practices skin care has to be a licensed aesthetician and renew bi-annually. We have to practice under the supervision of a physician, in our case, we are lucky enough to have the amazing Dr. Beals. We also have to register all of our laser equipment with the State board and have a staff laser safety officer. Our lasers are required to have annual preventative maintenance ensuring their proper function and accuracy. Beyond all of this, we attend (virtually these days), continuing education courses to learn the most advanced protocols and the newest technological advancements in aesthetics.
Continuing Education
Learning never stops in our world. It seems like every day a new product, ingredient, device or protocol is being sold as the “next best thing”. As responsible practitioners we have to learn about them all, even the ones we don’t use. We have to know what they are used for, what contraindications exist for each treatment, what the clinical trial success rates are and what the post care for each of them is. We learn all of this to keep you safe. When you come in and tell us you had a Fractora two days ago at a medspa down the street, don’t be surprised if we tell you to reschedule. We know that your skin needs to properly heal before you should consider having any other treatment.
So how do we choose which devices we will bring into our practice? We research. We read information about aesthetic procedures all of the time. We read about machines that claim to be the best then put on our devil’s advocate thinking cap and look for inadequacies. We talk to sales representatives and demo the technology on ourselves and each other. A new device is never used on patients unless we have had proper training and successfully tried it on staff first.
Patient Safety Above All
We are understandably really excited when a new machine becomes part of our toolbox because it means that we have more options and versatility in the treatment room. Because we are excited, we often talk about the new treatment before it is available to use. We are planting seeds in the minds of the patients that could benefit most from it. Upon hearing our enthusiasm for the newest greatest bestest, patients often say, “if you need a guinea pig let me know.” We would love nothing more than to give you a freebie so we can take it for a test drive, but that is probably never going to happen. We are responsible for thinking first of your safety and wellbeing and we take that responsibility very seriously, so if we are going to experiment with new or existing technology, you had better believe it will be on ourselves and each other and not on you.
Speaking of things patients ask, another one I get a lot is, “are there any specials coming up for (fill in the blank)?” The truth is, usually we have no idea. Our monthly specials are typically dictated by manufacturer promotions that allow us to pass savings on to you. We rarely know more than a few days before the start of a month what the specials will be. We are not trying to be secretive about it; cross my heart! When there are no good gifts with purchase or Botox vouchers available, we brainstorm as a o our team here.