So what’s the difference between Aesthetic vs Medical Practitioners?

We can all agree that the endless Zoom meetings during lockdown were incredibly tedious, while they also left us spending much more time staring at our own faces!

So, it’s little wonder that interest in cosmetic surgeries and wrinkle reduction injections soared during lockdown, accelerating a trend that has been prevalent for years now.

When searching for practitioners online, you’ll find both aesthetic and medical practitioners offering a range of services. But what are the differences between these two options and why should you care?

#1. The Issue of Insurance

While “aesthetic practitioners” are free to own and operate clinics, did you know that there’s absolutely no obligation for them to procure insurance in relation to their treatments?

This theoretically enables anyone to purchase filler and establish a clinic, without being required to provide relevant insurance coverage that protects both practitioners and clients alike.

The opposite is true in the case of medical practitioners, who are bound by law to carry insurance that covers the full range of cosmetic procedures that they offer.

The issue here is that an aesthetic practitioner’s lack of insurance isn’t always apparent, and can be masked by five-star reviews online or a professional and easily navigable website.

#2. Accountability and Accreditation

On a similar note, aesthetic practitioners aren’t currently regulated by an accredited or third-party organisation, creating a fundamental lack of accountability among service providers and their individual surgeons.

Conversely, medical aesthetic practitioners are qualified in medicine to degree level and registered with a trusted governing body. Here at KG Aesthetics, for example, I’m a fully qualified nurse with 16 years’ experience working in the NHS, while I’m also registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK.

With this type of accreditation, accountability is guaranteed, while medical practitioners can fully safeguard the public and their individual clients by being compelled to meet professional standards at all times.

This is an important consideration when choosing a practitioner, particularly when you also factor in the post-graduate training and continuous scrutiny applied to medical practitioners.

#3. Consider the Need for an Emergency Response

While it is rare for cosmetic procedures such as anti-wrinkle injections to go wrong, there are some instances where this can happen.

Complications such as allergic reactions can occur, and this can be incredibly worrying for clients and their practitioners.

In this case, you’ll want to be in the most capable hands, with medical practitioners capable of providing an emergency response and urgent care as the need arises.

Now, while both medical and aesthetic practitioners will have undertaken some form of aesthetics training, the latter are not required to boast any kind of medical training and will be unable to respond in the face of a medical emergency.

This is due to the fact that aesthetic training courses simply don’t make a provision for emergency medical responses, with medical practitioners getting their knowledge of anatomy and complication recognition through more formal training routes.