• Aesthetic services are designed to help patients appreciate their natural beauty through treatments designed to enhance skin health and appearance. For some, this may be wrinkling or drooping around the eyes, facial botox injections for forehead wrinkles, permanent facial hair removal, or pigmentation correction.

Agree on realistic goals

Non-surgical procedures have clinically significant results, unlike most topical skincare sold in the cosmetics industry. However, the prevalence of highly selective or touched-up before and after photos means that patients often have unrealistic expectations of aesthetic procedures.

Here’s how to negotiate realistic goals in your patient consultation…

Pre-treatment and post-treatment photographs

Pre- and post-treatment photography is important for various reasons. Not only do these images make it easier to talk through areas of concern, but after treatment patients can become psychologically acclimatised to the effects. Directly comparing follow-up photos means you can exhibit the scale of the outcome to the patient, increasing patient satisfaction.

• Medical background, trainings, and experience are very important to ensure your safety isn’t on the line! Aesthetic treatments are medical treatments and not spa treatments. Every injector should have a medical background and education to understand anatomy & physiology, risk factors, health complications and SO MUCH MORE. You can usually find this information posted on the website, and if not be sure to ask during an initial consultation. 

• Something that we always place a lot of emphasis on during our training courses is the importance of carrying out a proper, in-depth medical consultation before any treatment takes place. We consult our patients for a number of reasons. Firstly, a medical consultation allows us to find out more about the patient’s medical history and ensure that they are actually safe and suitable to have treatment in the first place. It also gives us the opportunity to properly explain and discuss the various treatment options available to them. Finally, it allows us to assess the patient’s area(s) of concern, find out what results they’re hoping to achieve from the treatment, and manage their expectations accordingly. Management of patient expectations is a vital part of the consultation process and is not something to be glossed over as an aesthetic practitioner.