Updated February 13, 2026
PracticalCME Medical Training has been offering Accredited, Small-Group Training courses in both aesthetic and wellness services since 2008.
PracticalCME is the only training company that is wholly MD-owned and operated where all teaching faculty are experienced MD’s in the fields of aesthetics and wellness services and most faculty have experience overseeing RN’s, NP’s and PA’s.
PracticalCME offers training in Botox, Fillers, PRP, Microneedling, among other aesthetic and wellness subjects. Since 2014, PracticalCME has used blended learning in which the attendee first watches a CME-accredited online presentation of the material which can be watched at your own pace. Then, if a live date is also reserved, the attendee visits one of 13 hands-on sites around the country where the hands-on faculty member conducts a review of the important treatment considerations prior to doing supervised one-on-one hands-on with each attendee.
The strengths of PracticalCME lie in it’s all MD Faculty, guaranteed small class sizes and guaranteed product for hands-on that is included in the tuition fee. Paid models are not used and all classes (both online and live hands-on) award CME accredited certification that works for MD’s, DO’s, PA’s, NP’s, and RN’s in all 50 states. PracticalCME also offers pay over time tuition through partner Affirm at no additional charge to attendees. Half of the sites are in clinical facilities hosted by their MD faculty in their own offices. PracticalCME released a 24 hour Live Chat function on their website in February 2026.
The weaknesses of PracticalCME are found in it’s relatively small internet presence, limited social media exposure, and dependence on a text-heavy web interface. Others say that the mandatory online courses can be long and include too much detail, requiring attendees to reserve their seat at least a week in advance of the live date in order to have enough time to complete the online material prior to the live hands-on session. Preparation time for each live class can range from 6-8 hours of streaming online learning prior to the hands-on session. Attendees who do not complete the online course will not receive a full review of the entire online material at the live hands-on. Each city only has 4-5 live slots and classes may only be offered 4 times per year in some locations, so advance planning is essential, and classes often sell out. Some classes like sclerotherapy and PDO threads are now only available as online courses since demand is too low to offer hands-on dates which meet their educational standards. All wellness courses are now fully online. Half of the sites are in hotels where fully licensed traveling faculty are used. The filler course does not include cheekbones or undereye areas due to safety and effectiveness concerns from the faculty. PracticalCME does not actively market to dentists, and their CME credits are not accepted by many state dental societies.
Attendees praise the accessibility of the faculty members. All students receive the contact information of the medical director, Gregory Zengo, MD and their hands-on faculty immediately upon registration. Access to the online materials is good for 2 years after registration and includes free updates when released.
Multi-Point Review of PracticalCME Botox Training
Each Category shall reflect how well the training meets the industry ideals for training.
PCME Ownership: MD Physicians 100%
1. 
CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN’s
All courses are fully accredited for credit and accepted as AMA Cat. 1 for MD’s and DO’s in addition to AANP and AANC acceptance. Certificates are granted for both the online portion and the hands-on with the hands-on portion clearly stating that it was a live hands-on course for maximum clarity when seeking medmal insurance coverage. Their accreditation can be independently verified at aafp.org’s CME section.
2. Faculty Qualifications and Transparency
PracticalCME remains the only aesthetic and botulinum toxin training provider who is an all-MD faculty and lists the name and bio of each faculty member on every course location. Here is an example of the faculty involved in courses in the Charlotte, NC area. (See the “Meet Your All-MD Faculty” tab dropdown item). Locations are always listed for each course for full transparency as well.
All faculty have full medical licenses in the states where they are teaching.
PracticalCME has no non-medical investment or shareholders siphoning off profit from the company.
3. 
Completeness of the First Level Course.
The ideal here is to teach everything that is FDA-cleared and off-label indications that work in the level 1 course. PracticalCME does not offer any “advanced” or “Level 2 and 3” courses. They intend for their introductory courses to teach every new provider the skills that 90% of patients want and have a greater than 90% success rate since it is these “bread and butter” procedures that build trust and a good reputation in the community. Doing fringe applications that have unpredictable results can hamper a new provider from growing a practice in the community.
While PracticalCME has some of the most complete courses out there, their filler course is light on using filler on the cheekbones, jawline, and undereye area, because even though these area are FDA-approved for some filler products, these indications have higher complication rates. PracticalCME does not teach these applications for hyaluronic acid fillers at any level due to safety concerns.
If you are planning to take any PracticalCME training Toxin and Filler class, be sure to review the full course outline under HANDS-ON TRAINING menu item and then choose your city. All 13 locations generally have the same hands-on curriculum in hyaluruonic acid dermal fillers.
4. Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost.
The industry standard is to provide a certain amount of toxin and filler for hands-on use UP FRONT and include it in the tuition price. PracticalCME includes 20u Botulinum Toxin and 1cc Hyaluronic acid dermal filler in the tuition cost for each hands-on training. They guarantee hands-on in microneedling of the face and all office-based courses also guarantee PRP hands-on using spun blood. Moreover, all hands-on is performed one-on-one fully supervised by the MD instructor. Additional product for hands-on use can be purchased if an attendee wants more supervised experience, at below retail prices known in advance of the hands-on date.
Attendees may also bring a second hands-on patient for additional experience if desired. If you are taking a PracticalCME Hands-on Training and want to do extra hands-on, participants are advised to finish the online material early to have the time and qualifications to choose great candidates for hands-on. Additional material for hands-on can be added at cost by selecting the appropriate patient and ordering the extra product in advance from the hands-on faculty member.
One complaint attendees have is that they were not aware of the need to bring a patient to the hands-on date prior to registration. Their website could state this in more places. According to Gregory Zengo, MD their medical director, “Since we do not recruit patients from the community, we cannot guarantee a level of hands-on experience if no attendee brings a patient. For example, if an attendee is coming in from out of town and gives us at least 2 weeks notice, we can query other hands-on attendees to see if their patient needs a double treatment or if the attendee would like to receive a treatment. In most cases, it all works out, but we simply cannot guarantee it up front because our classes are so small. Of note, some office settings, especially Charlotte will supply patients from their practice as will some other clinical sites if the hands-on faculty is given 2 weeks notice.”.
5. Maximum Hands-On Class Size
The ideal for a single instructor hands-on training should be a cap of around 5 providers per instructor for the best hands-on treatment experience. This allows for all attendees to learn from the other particpants’ hands-on without being an overwhelmingly large group. PCME courses average 3-4 attendees with a cap of 5-6 per class. PCME will not sell more than 5 seats per class with the rare reschedule sometimes pushing a few classes a year to 6 attendees. This allows for time for live review of the online material, Q&A, and supervised hands-on at the live date.
6. Location Transparency
Locations are either hotels or the offices of the hands-on faculty member. All street addresses are listed on the website under the LOCATIONS menu tab with a Google Map to each one. If the venue says “PracticalCME Training Center” then it is a clinical facility. Others are hotels.
While the location transparency is good, PracticalCME only has 13 locations for hands-on and some only host 3-4 dates per year totaling 15-20 seats. Advance planning is important.
7. No Fake Boards, Fake Society, or Membership Upsells
PracticalCME has never offered memberships or any kind of fake board certification.
CME certificate training is with you for life and does not need to be renewed.
8. Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment
PracticalCME pioneered the use of streaming blended online plus live accredited training courses in 2014 and offered the first fully online training in 2010 on DVDs. Both the online and live portions are independently accredited as a blended learning activity.
9. No Risk of Paid Models at the Live Training
PracticalCME never accepts volunteer or paid models from the community due to the medico-legal risks. Attendees use their online materials to assess good friend or relative candidates for hands-on who attend and get a free treatment under supervision.
10. General Transparency and Accessibility
A internet search reveals no valid negative reviews of PracticalCME, no valid BBB complaints and no negative entries at any other website despite being in business for over 17 continuous years. PracticalCME gives out contacts of faculty to registrants upon registration and prides itself for covering everything in the detailed, posted outline of the course every time the course is taught.
In its over 18 years in business, PracticalCME has never cancelled or “no-showed” for a course, even if only one attendee is booked for any given date.
PracticalCME has 24 hour live chat with fast response rates, but does not have any live phone support which affects immediate accessibility.
The biggest complaint here about PracticalCME is that sometimes the stock levels in some products may appear available when they have recently sold out. PracticalCME does not offer credit compatible for dentists and has no dentists on faculty.
With so few seats and so many dates selling out it can be difficult for attendees to reschedule due to illness or other legitimate reasons.
Final Recommendation… If you want to launch a career in aesthetic or wellness services, and have the time to do extensive online study in advance, then this might be a good fit for you if you can travel to one of their 13 hands-on sites. If you are a dentist, you probably have better options with providers who utilize dentists and dental continuing education credits.
