A medical spa isn’t quite the same as a day spa, even if some of the services they offer are similar. Medical spas, like Mirror Mirror Beauty Boutique, combine the relaxing atmosphere of a day spa with the type of cosmetic treatments you might normally get at a plastic surgeon’s office.
In recent years, medical spas (also called “med spas”) have become more and more popular. With so many options available on the market, you might be wondering how to tell one spa from another and how to choose the best one.
When choosing a medical spa, there are a few things to keep an eye out for–including a few red flags.
What Treatments Are on Offer?
Often, you’ll find a long list of non-surgical, minimally-invasive cosmetic treatments available at a medical spa. If you have a particular treatment in mind, such as Botox, fillers, or Coolsculpting, it’s a good idea to verify that the spa offers it. That’s an easy way to start narrowing down your search.
You might notice that a particular spa offers one type of treatment, such as one brand of injectable fillers, but not another brand. Or, it might offer Coolsculpting, but not another non-surgical fat reduction option.
It can be worthwhile to give the spa a call and ask why it offers one service and not another. It could be that the people who work at the spa are trained with a particular technique or brand, or it could be that the surgeon who supervises the spa believes that one treatment is better than the others.
In addition to medical treatments such as injectables, laser skin resurfacing and non-surgical fat reduction, you’re likely to see a list of traditional spa treatments available, such as facials. Not every medical spa offers day spa treatments, though.
Who Works at the Medical Spa?
It’s important to find out more about the people who work at the medical spa and the people who will be performing your treatment. One other major difference between medical spas and day spas is that a medical spa needs to be affiliated with a medical professional.
Ideally, that professional will be a board-certified plastic surgeon. Board-certified plastic surgeons are experts when it comes to aesthetics. They know what procedures or treatments to recommend to patients to help them best achieve their goals.
Another benefit of choosing a spa that’s supervised by a board-certified plastic surgeon is it can open up the possibility of combining surgical treatments with non-surgical options. For some patients, combining minimally-invasive procedures with surgery is the best way to get the results they want.
What Type of Equipment is Available?
Non-surgical cosmetic treatments have come a long way in recent years. Older techniques have been replaced by newer, better or faster methods. The equipment used to perform certain treatments has also improved considerably over the years.
For example, older laser hair removal methods were usually only recommended for people with light skin and dark hair. Newer techniques and lasers mean that laser hair removal is effective on a wider range of skin and hair types.
That’s why it’s particularly important to find out what type of equipment a medical spa uses and how old it is. You don’t want to visit a medical spa that’s trapped in the dark ages or that will use equipment that’s past its prime.
It’s also a good idea to find out how much of certain equipment a spa has. A spa that’s well-equipped will have shorter wait times for patients, as it will be able to perform multiple procedures at once. In the case of Coolsculpting, the more applicators a spa has, the more areas of the body that can be treated at once. That means that you need fewer treatment sessions to get the same results.
Who Performs Each Treatment?
Although a plastic surgeon should supervise the operation of a medical spa, that doesn’t mean that they will perform each and every treatment on offer there. When you go in for your consultation, ask who will perform your treatment.
Then, find out as much as possible about your provider, including how much training they have and what their experience is with the particular treatment you’re considering. You can also ask to look at the before-and-after pictures of past patients so that you can get a sense of their skill level and the type of results they can produce.
Mirror Mirror Beauty Boutique, in Houston Texas, has been providing non-surgical aesthetic treatments to patients for more than 25 years. To learn more about our treatments and services, call 281-810-9083 to schedule a consultation or a tour of our spa today!