Steer clear of the Botox cowboys

On Friday, the Department of Health will be issuing new guidelines on the use of Botox and fillers. But what they are going to propose has left many of the more conscientious within the industry feeling that the DoH has bottled out of imposing any regulations at all. The guidelines will ask the industry to take the lead on improving safety and regulate itself. It is understood they will be proposing a voluntary system whereby clinics join a register run by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services. No legislation, and no penalties for bad practice.
The British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) is not at all happy with this, saying it will not protect the public from cowboy clinics. They want a system of fines or the register to be compulsory. Currently Botox can be carried out anywhere by anyone with training in giving injections. Podiatrists, physiotherapists and veterinary surgeons have all enquired about injecting the toxin for cosmetic reasons and in fact anyone could set up shop offering Botox jabs. The temptation to do so must be huge, with the anti-wrinkle treatment becoming increasingly popular, especially in London. Over 100,000 Britons a year use Botox and take up has gone up 2,500% in three years, making it the fastest-growing treatment in the cosmetics industry. It’s big business.
The medical profession is usually pretty strict about what can and cant be done by people with various levels of qualification, but Botox and fillers seem to have been overlooked. They are invasive procedures and Botox is a prescription-only medicine. Patient safety should be paramount. When things go wrong, and they do, (think Leslie Ash) patients can be left physically or psychologically scarred for life.
Botox blocks the nerve signals to muscle in the area it is injected, so that the muscles relax, smoothing and softening wrinkled areas. Its effect wears off after four to six months. It is generally safe and well tolerated but it isn’t always harmless. Cliff Richard and Lynne Franks both suffered drooping brows after treatment, and other users have had headaches, double vision or sagging facial muscles. In rare cases, it can cause an allergic reaction that can kill.
It is also sold to patients in some very unethical and irresponsible ways. Alcohol fuelled Botox parties. Two for One, time limited offers and non-refundable deposits all put pressure on patients to undergo procedures they may well later regret. This is immoral in any branch of medicine. The GMC states that the patient must have a two-week cooling off period to think it over before deciding to have work done.
In France and Denmark there are laws that limit who can do what, to whom and where, and the same is likely to happen in Mexico and Spain, yet still the British government is avoiding improving regulation to safeguard patients. I’m not at all sure why.
If you are considering any sort of cosmetic procedures I would urge you to check your surgeon's qualifications first. They should be on the Specialist Register of the GMC, and preferably registered with BAAPS, but remember that the UK government insanely refuses to recognize cosmetic surgery as a specialty. If a surgeon is not listed on the Specialist Register, they have not received a full surgical training in the UK.
The cosmetic surgery industry was born in the 80s but the law has failed to keep pace with regulation and training. But as many will argue self-regulation is better than no regulation at all, as is currently the case.