The UK facial aesthetics industry is now thought to be worth £2.75bn. It’s been six years since the Keogh Report, a review on cosmetic treatments by NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, but despite his recommendation that fillers be made prescription, little has changed.
In fact, the number of botched face jobs has risen steeply and continues to accelerate thanks to a perfect storm of no regulation, celebrity culture and social media. To give you an idea, 72% of all complaints in 2017 were from patients who found the practitioner on social media, and 83% of procedures were administered by non-medics.
Keogh also called for regulation to ensure staff were qualified, and for appropriate record-keeping of the use of filler products, but instead fillers have become the main problem area, accounting for 616 of the 934 patient complaints regarding unregistered practitioners that were recorded by Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners, in 2017-18.
This month the Department of Health is launching a campaign to raise awareness about the importance of seeking professional advice regarding fillers, Botox and cosmetic surgery. The campaign has already been announced on BBC Radio 1, and media outlets have been finding the latest examples of horrible botched face jobs. The government wants anyone seeking facial aesthetics to find a qualified, reputable and registered practitioner.
Is your dental practice going to be on the list? Dental practices are perfectly positioned to serve this need and ride this wave of free publicity. If you currently do facial aesthetics you don’t want to be overlooked. At the very least, get talking about this issue on your blog and on social media, and use the event to show people in your catchment that you’re the safest option for facial aesthetics. You’re a regulated dental clinic, meeting CQC standards of environmental hygiene, and your facial aesthetics practitioner knows more about facial anatomy than most doctors.
Invite a reporter from your local paper to come in and have free lip fillers or Botox, or put yourself forward for an interview on your local radio station. Put out a call to find someone in your area who has had botched fillers or Botox and interview them, using the piece to draw attention to the risks to mental and physical health of using cheap, untrained practitioners. This is a great opportunity to create content that really matters to your target market. Get in touch if you need a hand.
JJF
07860 672727
