18 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR PRACTITIONER AT A CONSULTATION
The consultation is a vital part of the treatment process. It’s your first – and sometimes only – opportunity to learn about the procedure you’re considering from your practitioner and establish whether the tweakment is truly the one for you. There’s a diverse range of concerns – ranging from safety, to cost, to what the results will look like, to how you should care for your skin afterwards – and it can be difficult to think of everything on the spot. Having been through more consultations than you can shake a stick at, I wanted to pass on my list of 18 essential questions to ask your practitioner at a consultation. Read on below or download the pdf version over on the right.
Ideally you will have your consultation with the practitioner you have chosen, and they will be the person who does your treatment. But it’s worth asking in case they are planning to pass you on to an associate. In some clinics it is standard practice for nurses to conduct consultations for example, then you and your notes will be passed on to the doctor or senior practitioner for treatment. In my opinion, that’s not the best practice, although I can see that it is time-saving and cost-effective for the clinic.
This is helpful if you haven’t already seen before-and-after photos. Most practitioners will have patients who are happy to have their pictures shown to other prospective patients.
Again, most practitioners will have patients who are happy to chat about what a particular treatment is actually like.
Will the treated area be swollen? Will there be redness? Or bruising? And if so, how long for? You really need to know this, particularly if you are hoping to go back to work the same day as the procedure, or see family or friends that evening, or are having treatment in order to look great for some particular event. Don’t have anything too close to the big day.
Crucial to know. Don’t shy away from asking it. Any procedure has a certain degree of risk associated with it. In the right hands using well-tested products, those risks are minimised – but they’re still there. You need all the information before going ahead and you’ll only know if you ask.
Don’t let anyone get away with saying, ‘Oh, we very rarely have a problem.’ And if something were to go wrong, would they be able to fix it? Or would you be stuck with it? There should be a policy on complications, and the clinic should let you know what it is. You’re a paying patient; your concerns should be fully addressed rather than dismissed.
Your practitioner should give you a number to call if you have any urgent, specific concerns following treatment – not just the clinic number, but a number where you can speak to and get advice from the practitioner or one of their staff.
Worth asking. Though the usual answer is that there isn’t much you can do. Tweakments are minor cosmetic medical procedures. They’re not a consumer purchase that you can take back. (The exception to this rule is hyaluronic-acid fillers, which can be dissolved with injections of Hyalase.) The good news is that most tweakments are temporary so, after waiting out a certain amount of time, your face will drift back to how it was before.