Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

Mr Adrian Richards, Clinical Director of Cosmetic Courses has called for the Government controlled MHRA to clarify it stance on two major issues.  Are Nurses allowed to administer Botox injections without the patient seeing a doctor or dentist and whether the term Botox can be used on websites?   Mr Richards stated that because the MHRA recommendations are not being enforced they are being widely ignored throughout the UK.

The MHRA- Medicines and Healthcare regulatory Agency is the government body “designed to ensure that Medicines and Medical devices are acceptably safe”.  As such it regulates the use of all prescription only (POM’s) including Botox.

The MHRA’s guidelines state that Botox “can be administered by an appropriate practitioner or under the guidance of an appropriate practitioner”.  By this they mean a Doctor, Dentist or Nurse who has completed extra training to allow them to prescribe Botox.

Mr Richards however feels that the MHRA phrase “under the guidance of an appropriate practitioner” is unnecessarily woollen and can be interpreted in many different ways.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have stated that they do not consider it good practice for nurses to administer Botox via a remote consultation.  They recommend that each patient is reviewed in person by a Doctor or Dentist prior to treatment.

This is not specifically stated as a recommendation by the MHRA.  This has resulted in some Nurses abiding by the NMC recommendations but many ignoring them completely and administering Botox injections with no contact with an “Appropriate practitioner”

Mr Richards stated that the MHRA guidelines are being widely ignored with impunity because no Nurse has yet been prosecuted by the MHRA for repeatedly ignoring their recommendations.

Likewise advertising prescription only medicines such as Botox is illegal.  However many websites feature Botox heavily on their home pages.  The MHRA’s role is to enforce this but again Mr Richards said that these companies were ignoring the recommendations because the MHRA have never taken any legal action against them.

Mr Richards urged the MHRA to clarify both of these issues as soon as possible to ensure that Botox treatments are as safe as possible and administered by appropriate practitioners.

Finding the right plastic surgeon has become easier for Americans. Many surgeons have created facebook pages for potential customers to visit. The pages include customer testimonials as well as blogs written by the surgeons themselves. Past patients are able to connect with potential patients to give them advice and share their experiences.

Facebook, privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc., is a social networking website which allows people to keep in touch. Each member is able to create a profile and send messages back and forth among friends. There are many networks that a person can join in order to network with cities, businesses, schools, and clubs. The website is free to users and generates money through advertisers. Facebook is often compared to myspace, another social networking website.

The rush to add plastic surgery to facebook has many benefits to both the surgeons and the patients. People are able to learn about different procedures and find the right one for them, right from the comfort of their home. They are able to connect with experts and get questions answered directly. This makes finding a plastic surgeon easy and convenient.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) is also on facebook. Their facebook page includes news about advances in the organization as well as blogs about what to expect from many different procedures. It has connections to other websites that are sponsored by the ASAPS including online journals and loan offers. Minutes from ASAPS meetings can even be viewed and people can keep up with everything that is going on in the plastic surgery field.

Some surgeons use other venues to promote their procedures. Twitter has become popularly used for updating people with new advances in surgeries and the benefits of different types of procedures. Some are even thinking of broadcasting the surgeries on the web. These patients would have their identities protected, while allowing others to see how the procedures are performed.

Modiface, a Canadian website, has a very innovative feature which allows potential patients to see how they will look after a procedure. People who are interested in facial surgery, are allowed to download a photo and then alter it to see what they will look like after a nose job or facelift. Other sites are considering adding the same features for whole body procedures.

Choosing a cosmetic procedure and finding the right surgeon has never been easier. Logging on to facebook can provide unlimited access to tons of information about plastic surgery.

A new study shows that the average teenager will spend close to 31 hours a week surfing the web and not all of the sites they are visiting are social networking and gaming sites.

Many of the hours teens spend on the internet are spent in viewing sites they’d rather not let their parents know about. With so much information readily available on the web kids today are finding it easier to get answers to their intimate questions from anonymous web sites rather than from asking mom and dad.

Studies show that teens are spending upwards of one hour and forty minutes a week browsing soft porn web sites and as many as one hour and thirty-five minutes a week looking at web sites dealing with dieting and weight loss. In a modern day twist teens are now spending more than one hour and eight minutes a week exploring cosmetic surgery websites with the specific procedures of breast implants, nose jobs, and butt lifts being the most widely explored issues.

With most teenagers having unsupervised use of the computer for up to two hours a day, there is no way for parents to regulate the sites their children are visiting. Most teens confess to taking precautions to hide which sites they visit from their parents and are not eager to reveal the subject matter that interests them to the people who matter most in their lives.

Ellie Puddle, the marketing director for Cyber Sentinel stated: “The research shows that teenagers are exploring al sorts of topics as a result of modern day pressures.” In addition to viewing questionable websites, there is also an alarming rise in teens talking to strangers over the internet. Seeing it as a harmless way t make friends teenagers have no qualms with starting up a conversation with a person they don’t know. Experts say that since the internet is so widely available at school and on phone applications it is important for today’s young people to become proactive and stay in control of their own internet use.

A spokesperson for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre encourages teenagers to report suspicious behaviors of people they meet on line, and be honest with their parents regarding the web sites they are visiting. So much of a teen’s perceptions of the world today are formed not by the family unit at home, but by the virtual strangers who publish web sites and online chat room experiences.

An unidentified woman has a lot to be upset about after opening a local newspaper and seeing pictures of her own naked body plastered within.

Identified only as “Jane Doe” on court records, the woman was reading the Riverfront Times newspaper when she glimpsed the photos that were taken of her after what she referred to as a botched cosmetic surgery. The small photos showing her mid section did not show her face and were not identifiable, but that didn’t stop the woman from suing the doctors who did the surgery.

The doctors are connected to the Body Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and Skin Care Center in Creve Coeur, MO. They have insisted that the photos were never supposed to be printed, but the newspaper editors who used the photos in a story about cosmetic surgery insist that they never would have printed the photos without a the doctor’s permission.

Though the photos were not salacious and impossible to identify, the woman has said, “I can’t explain to you how horrified I was.” She sued the doctors for three million dollars and won the lawsuit, but the jury decided to only award her $100,000 in compensatory damages. The woman went on to file another suit against her doctors, this time for malpractice stemming from her unsatisfactory plastic surgery she received at their hands. That lawsuit was settled out of court.

This story perfectly illustrates the importance of privacy issues connected to cosmetic surgery. Though plastic surgery has come a long way from the days of women hiding themselves so no one would know they went “under the knife,” there is still a significant stigma against the procedures and now, more than ever, patient privacy must be protected at all costs. Plastic surgery like any other surgery is a private matter and doctors and hospitals must take their responsibilities to uphold their patient’s privacy seriously.

Cindy Simmons, the new head of Marketing for one of the UK’s largest cosmetic surgery chains has hit the industry with a bold new marketing campaign aimed at bringing plastic surgery advertisements into the everyday magazines and televisions of the average household.

Capitalizing on the wide spread popularity and acceptability of cosmetic surgery today, Simmons seeks to pioneer the spread of the industry to the middle classes through an ambitious advertising blitz.

Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group is the leading plastic surgery provider in the UK performing more than 860 procedures per month. Simmons would like to see that number climb by changing the public’s perceptions of cosmetic surgery and marketing the procedures as just another part of the beauty business. By placing surgical procedures on the same level as the latest lipstick, new hairstyle, or low rise jeans, Simmons is pushing to see her procedures advertised right next to the perfume ads in the world’s biggest fashion magazines.

She states that her push to see Transform considered right alongside an ad for Estee Lauder or Gucci is “A measure of our investment in the new marketing and the increasing acceptability of cosmetic procedures.” Though a media campaign is Simmons’ special project, Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group also credits their popularity to the availability of clinic financing in the form of interest free loans for surgical procedures. Not content with only knives, the doctors at Transform are also adept at non-surgical procedures such as botox injections, skin peels, cosmetic dentistry, and hair removal.

If Simmons has her way, Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group will push the industry in a whole new direction. Some are critical f her approach saying that the aggressiveness of her campaign trivializes the real dangers of surgical procedures and promotes a false image of the human body that many will go into debt to try and attain. However, Simmons is not discouraged by negative reports, but faces them squarely by flashing her best smile and becoming the new face of plastic surgery in the UK.

A group of experts is calling for a stricter regulations in advertising banning the use of airbrushed images in the media because of the potential harm they may cause young people dealing with negative body image issues.

Proponents of regulations want all advertisements to clearly state when an image has been artificially altered.

The organization The Liberal Democrats has started a campaign to help young people battle the problems of health issues such as clinical eating disorders, steroid use, and extreme exercising that can be brought on by a dissatisfaction with their overall body image. At the root of this campaign is the controversy over airbrushed photos in advertisements. Jo Swinson, of the Liberal Democrats told the Telegraph that she believes “Airbrushing means that women and young girls are being bombarded with images of people with perfect skin, perfect hair and perfect figures which are impossible to live up to.”

The Liberal Democrats would not only like to see disclaimers added to airbrushed photos, but they would like a total ban on all airbrushed advertisements aimed at young people under sixteen years old. They also see the increase in the popularity of plastic surgery as an issue and would like to require cosmetic surgery advertisements to list their success rates.

Many concerned parents and watchdog groups fault the airbrushed photos in fashion magazines with creating an unrealistic view of the human body. Advocacy groups are calling on the Advertising Standards Agency to get involved and require notification on each airbrushed image used in the media. Some experts are concerned that the constant bombardment of false body images to young people will negate the positive effects of the surge in schools offering diverse exercise options to young people such as yoga, dance, and aerobics.