Medical Spas, now offering invasive procedures such as botox, liposuction, and laser treatments, are taking advantage of patients, and regulatory standards, nationwide. A hybrid of a beauty shop and a doctor's office, medical spas have boomed over the past decade, increasing from 200 to 2,000 stores nationwide, leaving the regulatory industry playing catch up.
Recently these spas have been offering treatments that, if supervised by a doctor, require little to no regulation. Leaving no real code to define what a spa can provide, and who can provide it. Many times, an un-licensed, un-trained spa worker will administer procedures under the apparent “supervision” of the attending physician.
The spotty regulations surronding medical spas have left many bruised, burned, infected, and even dead after their treatments. State departments of health typically don’t regulate spas as they would hospitals, where treatments are only supposed to be “skin deep”. Now, with the addition of treatments like botox and liposuction, the term "skin deep" seems to be a flexible definition at best.
Dr. Richard Rosenblum, a plastic surgeon, warns potential patients that they should be aware of not only the effects of the procedure, but also who is performing it. “Every procedure has a risk to it…We wish they had zero risk, but there’s always a risk. If you have someone with little to zero cosmetic experience doing it, you may not get the desired effect, and if there’s a problem you don’t have a doctor to correct it.”
