The importance of being an accredited cosmetic practitioner
Published: December 7, 2021Why has demand for cosmetic treatment shot up since lockdown in March 2020
Despite Coronavirus shutting down businesses across the globe, many cosmetic clinics remained open, adopting stricter measures such as Covid-19 tests and more frequent cleaning. Cosmetic doctors have reported that the surge in clients requesting cosmetic procedures have increased amid lockdown.
You could argue that the reason for this could be due to the fact that people are seeing themselves everyday on video calls for work, making people more aware of their appearance and leaving them feeling more self-conscious. Further to this, lockdown restrictions meant staying home and having to quarantine and so, with no social events, diaries opened up and allowed for the excessive downtime after procedures. Unfortunately, many rogue practitioners took advantage of this, knowing many people would be tempted to opt for cheaper and far more dangerous alternatives due to limited budget and increasingly stretched incomes caused by the pandemic. Although measures are being taken to outlaw any practitioners who are not qualified to carry out such procedures, there are many advertised cosmetic courses online that claim to teach non-medics how to administer injectable treatments to a very high standard.
However, more people are now thoroughly researching and carefully choosing who will perform their cosmetic surgery, with the public becoming more aware that if their cosmetic procedures are not undertaken by a trained medical professional, it could be dangerous and potentially cause life-threatening complications.
We spoke to our Cosmetic Medicine Programme Leader on the importance of being an accredited cosmetic practitioner:
Meet Ana Cristina Diniz Silva, our Cosmetic Medicine Programme Leader and dedicated tutor from Brazil. Ana currently works at a private medical clinic and is an author and tutor for the University of South Wales. In addition, she is currently mentoring students on the MSc in Dermatology and tutoring on the Dermatology and Cosmetic Medicine Postgraduate Diplomas.
Ana has accumulated years worth of experience in cosmetic dermatology, including botulinum toxin injections (head and neck, hyperhidrosis sites), non-surgical lifting with silhouette threads, hyaluronic acid and calcium hydroxyapatite fillers (nasolabial folds, facial contours, lips, tear trough, MD codes) and fractional laser treatment.
We recently discussed the high level of cosmetic procedures that have taken place since March 2020 and we asked Ana what are her patients' main reasons for seeking cosmetic surgery? She confirmed that with more people seeing their appearance everyday via video meetings, it has had an enormous impact on clients requesting cosmetic treatment.
We also questioned how often patients ask to receive more information about the qualifications and training she has taken - Ana said 50%+ ask to learn more about her professional background. Proving that more people are no longer compromising their safety by assuming that they will be working with skilled, responsible and accredited practitioners.
With the Health Education England (HEE) increasing regulatory requirements for aesthetic practice, it is vital for individuals performing cosmetic intervention to have a formal diploma in aesthetic medicine. To gain your patients’ trust, our PGDip and MSc cosmetology course will be an important milestone in your career and for any healthcare practitioner's journey. We asked Ana - what modules really benefit the students’ understanding in the cosmetic world?
“I love modules 1, 2 and 3, which assess anatomy and the injectable treatments (botulinum toxin and fillers). With module 1 it builds up a robust basis for further understanding and safe practice; and then in modules 2 and 3 we discuss the theory behind the injectable cosmetic therapeutic modalities, with a special focus on practical examples, that will guide and make our students' practice safer and more effective.”
This cosmetology course is not just designed for doctors, but for dentists, dental therapists, pharmacists and nurses who wish to improve their knowledge, skills and experience in cosmetic medicine. Our students discuss and create a solid content basis to understand later on how to perform on any type of intervention to know what to use. Completing a diploma in medical cosmetology ultimately improves practitioners’ ability to mitigate whether the patient needs cosmetic intervention or not and will help you become more thoughtful about the patient's needs and everyday struggles.
With the government introducing greater regulations around aesthetic medicine, maintaining trust in the surgeon-patient relationship all comes down to the right cosmetic training and credible qualification. You can achieve this when you complete our accredited online course. For more information, visit our Cosmetic Medicine course.