Not All Skin Treatments Are the Same — and That's Why Questions Matter

The aesthetics industry has changed enormously.

Today, a client looking for skin treatments might see similar-sounding services offered in spas, salons, aesthetic clinics, dermatology practices and medical clinics.

Chemical peels. Microneedling. Facials. Resurfacing. Acne treatments.

To a consumer scrolling through social media, those services can sometimes look interchangeable.

They aren't always.

What actually differs

The important distinction isn't whether one profession is “better” than another. It is understanding what procedure is actually being performed, what product or device is being used, who is performing it, what regulatory framework applies and what happens if there is a complication.

In Canada, products applied to the skin can fall into different regulatory categories depending on factors including their ingredients, concentration, intended use and the claims being made about them. A cosmetic is not regulated in the same way as a drug or medical device, and certain ingredients have restrictions on their concentration or conditions of use.

The same principle applies to procedures.

Microneedling, for example, isn't one universally identical treatment. Needle length, the area treated, the device used and what is applied to the skin can all change the nature and risk of the procedure. Public Health Ontario notes that infection risk varies with factors including needle length and the thickness of the skin at the treatment site.

For nurses, some aesthetic procedures can also involve controlled acts. CNO specifically identifies microneedling among aesthetic procedures that may involve controlled acts and requires nurses to consider their legal authority, competence and the context in which the procedure is being performed.

That doesn't mean every facial belongs in a medical clinic.

It does mean consumers deserve to understand exactly what they are purchasing.

Questions worth asking

Before having an invasive aesthetic procedure, some questions worth asking are:

• Who will actually perform my treatment, and what are their qualifications?
• What product or device is being used?
• How invasive is this particular treatment?
• What are the risks and contraindications?
• What infection-prevention measures are being used?
• Who assesses me before treatment?
• If I experience a complication, who is responsible for recognizing and managing it?
• Is there an appropriate plan for follow-up or escalation of care?

As a nurse, those questions matter to me because my responsibility doesn't end when a treatment is finished.

Aesthetic medicine can be fun, confidence-building and elective.

But when a procedure crosses into health care, the health-care responsibilities come with it.