Pick the practitioner not the product

When you’ve heard of a fab new laser or injectable, and you’re mad keen to try it, you might wonder why I start saying, ‘Yes, but… make sure you see a really good practitioner.’ However, it’s a truth rarely acknowledged in aesthetic medicine, that all products are only as good as the hands that are using them.

If we were talking haircuts, you’d get it

There are analogies to be made with haircuts – anyone can pick up a great pair of scissors, but few people will give you the exceptional cut and style that a maestro would create.

It’s the same with all aesthetic treatments 

While it’s perhaps easy enough to understand that there’s a degree of artistry – as well as expert knowledge and experience — needed when injecting fillers and toxins, it is less well recognised that who is doing your treatment matters just as much when it comes to energy-based devices.

Yes, even machines need to be in expert hands

Aren’t all these RF devices, lasers, IPL and plasma technologies all just point-and-shoot? By no means. It takes training, skill and competence to decide whether a particular type of treatment will benefit each individual patient and to work out the appropriate intensity of energy to use. Too little, and there won’t be any results; too much and, well, any aesthetician can tell you horror stories of the burns and hyperpigmentation that can occur.

Even muscle-stimulating treatments benefit from a bit of proper expertise in terms of precise placement of the pads that are delivering the energy charge. (In my experience, the pads can shift a bit during treatment, and it’s nerve-racking when the technician just straps you into the pads, turns the machine up to max, and leaves the room for half an hour).

Does that mean you need to see the head person? 

No, you don’t need to book in with the practice lead. If it’s their name on the door, all their staff are upholding their reputation, and their aestheticians, the ones who are actually doing these treatments day in day out, will be thoroughly trained to carry out the treatments and know exactly how to get the most out of each machine. Still, it’s always worth asking beforehand, ‘How many of these treatments have you done?’ If the answer is: ‘This is my first week!’ I’d call a halt right there. You don’t want to be one of their first guinea pigs.

Any exceptions?

Are there exceptions? Of course. You don’t need anyone with special skills to switch on a LED light canopy. And it doesn’t take much training to know how to position a low-level laser therapy device like the Emerald laser in the right place.

But it’s still the rule – practitioner first 

This all comes back to something you’ll have heard me say so many times before. Pick the best practitioner you can find. They won’t be the cheapest but you’ll get a better treatment, with better results – and surely, that’s what you want?

To find the best practitioner in your area for the tweakment you are interested in, head to our practitioner directory.