A guide to cosmetic clinics online

Before the inter­net, tablets and smart­phones, any­one think­ing of cos­met­ic enhance­ment would have talked to their GP for refer­ral to a rep­utable prac­ti­tion­er. Nowa­days though, the first port of call is more like­ly to be Google.

It’s easy to start your jour­ney by using search engines to find the web­sites of local clin­ics offer­ing the treat­ment you’re inter­est­ed in. How­ev­er, this is not always the best way to begin.

The trou­ble with the inter­net is that a flashy-look­ing web­site doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that the cos­met­ic sur­geon or clin­ic being adver­tised is as skilled as the web design­er and mar­ket­ing team behind their online pres­ence. It’s impor­tant to look beyond what is no more than a vir­tu­al glossy brochure and research more about the prac­ti­tion­er you’re con­sid­er­ing vis­it­ing.

Be cau­tious of con­tent in com­mu­ni­ty-based forums or social net­work­ing groups that may have a hid­den agen­da or bias towards (or against) a clin­ic or prac­ti­tion­er. Not every­one com­ment­ing online is who they claim to be so, while com­ments can be help­ful, you should not rely on them to make your deci­sion.

The April 2013 Keogh report, an expert review into the reg­u­la­tion of cos­met­ic inter­ven­tions in Eng­land, not­ed that “peo­ple need to be able to iden­ti­fy and choose a prac­ti­tion­er with the appro­pri­ate qual­i­fi­ca­tions, and be able to ascer­tain in advance their skills and expe­ri­ence in per­form­ing a giv­en pro­ce­dure”.

UNETHICAL

It also raised con­cerns about cer­tain “uneth­i­cal” mar­ket­ing tac­tics, so be care­ful of web­sites lit­tered with time-lim­it­ed deals and dis­counts, such as buy one get one free and cos­met­ic pro­ce­dures giv­en away as com­pe­ti­tion prizes, as these go against cur­rent UK adver­tis­ing stan­dards.

On your jour­ney through the inter­net, it is also impor­tant to steer clear of web­sites that seem to over­ly glam­ourise cos­met­ic pro­ce­dures, per­haps by using celebri­ty endorse­ments or offers of pho­to-shoots and makeovers as incen­tives to sign up.

Sim­i­lar­ly, claims that attempt to play on your inse­cu­ri­ties by mak­ing asser­tions that you’ll be “hap­pi­er” or “more con­fi­dent” after a pro­ce­dure at their clin­ic should sound alarm bells. Word­ing that makes light of the seri­ous med­ical nature of cos­met­ic surgery or the risks involved and tries to make it seem like an “easy option” should real­ly make you think twice.

The mark of a good cos­met­ic clin­ic web­site is one that encour­ages you to learn more, with details of each pro­ce­dure, clear­ly lay­ing out the key points to con­sid­er

The mark of a good cos­met­ic clin­ic web­site is one that encour­ages you to learn more, with details of each pro­ce­dure, clear­ly lay­ing out the key points to con­sid­er. It should have easy access to more infor­ma­tion about the skills and qual­i­fi­ca­tions of its prac­tis­ing medics. A rep­utable web­site lays the foun­da­tions for your jour­ney towards a prop­er con­sul­ta­tion and pos­si­ble treat­ment (or not, if rec­om­mend­ed). If it looks too good to be true, it prob­a­bly is and you’ll end up dis­ap­point­ed with your choice.

So, if aim­less­ly wan­der­ing through the search engine results is not the answer, how should you go about find­ing a prac­ti­tion­er online?

Although there are a mul­ti­tude of online cos­met­ic surgery direc­to­ries, all pur­port­ing to find you a clin­ic that can meet your needs, most of these sites don’t actu­al­ly check the reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance for the prac­ti­tion­ers and clin­ics they list.

You should ensure the web­site lists prac­ti­tion­ers whose qual­i­fi­ca­tions have been checked and, where applic­a­ble, nation­al reg­u­la­to­ry cer­ti­fi­ca­tion has been obtained.

SPECIALIST REGISTER

If you’re con­sid­er­ing a sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure, such as breast aug­men­ta­tion, face lift or tum­my tuck, then seek a plas­tic sur­geon with FRCS(Plast) after their name. Ide­al­ly they will also be on the spe­cial­ist reg­is­ter of the Gen­er­al Med­ical Coun­cil (GMC). Look at the web­site for the British Asso­ci­a­tion of Aes­thet­ic Plas­tic Sur­geons (www.baaps.org.uk) for a sur­geon spe­cial­is­ing in the spe­cif­ic pro­ce­dure you’re seek­ing.

In Eng­land, clin­ics and hos­pi­tals that deliv­er pri­vate cos­met­ic surgery pro­ce­dures must be reg­is­tered and inspect­ed by the Care Qual­i­ty Com­mis­sion. Vis­it www.cqc.org.uk to check a clinic’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and to read inspec­tion reports. Sim­i­lar reg­u­la­to­ry reg­is­tra­tions are required in Wales, Scot­land and North­ern Ire­land.

If you’re con­sid­er­ing a non-sur­gi­cal, med­ical aes­thet­ic treat­ment, such as cos­met­ic injecta­bles (bot­u­linum tox­ins and der­mal fillers), laser treat­ments or non-inva­sive body con­tour­ing pro­ce­dures, then the field of poten­tial rep­utable prac­ti­tion­ers will be much broad­er.

Depend­ing on the med­ical nature of the aes­thet­ic treat­ment, it may be required to be per­formed by a doc­tor or nurse, but some pro­ce­dures, for exam­ple micro­der­mabra­sion or laser hair removal, may be per­formed by a trained beau­ty ther­a­pist or aes­theti­cian. Look for clin­ics that have a clin­i­cal lead and ensure the team is over­seen by a doc­tor, inde­pen­dent nurse pre­scriber or den­tist.

Look for med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers who are mem­bers of the British Col­lege of Aes­thet­ic Med­i­cine (www.bcam.ac.uk) or aes­thet­ic nurs­es reg­is­tered with the British Asso­ci­a­tion of Cos­met­ic Nurs­es (www.cosmeticnurses.org).

With the gov­ern­ment choos­ing to reject the Keogh rec­om­men­da­tion for an inde­pen­dent, statu­to­ry reg­is­ter of cos­met­ic prac­ti­tion­ers, a new self-reg­u­la­to­ry scheme has been launched called Save Face (www.saveface.co.uk). The Save Face reg­is­ter will allow you to find, com­pare and rate non-sur­gi­cal prac­ti­tion­ers – doc­tors, nurs­es and den­tists – who have suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed their rig­or­ous accred­i­ta­tion process.

Choos­ing to have a cos­met­ic inter­ven­tion is a big, pos­si­bly life-chang­ing deci­sion. Pick the right online resources from the exam­ples list­ed here. Empow­er your­self and find a rep­utable prac­ti­tion­er.