1. / CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN’s

Dental continuing education: AAFE holds direct accreditation through the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD PACE, Provider 321332, current term through March 31, 2027) and the American Dental Association Continuing Education Recognition Program (ADA CERP). Both are granted to AAFE in AAFE’s own name and verifiable through public databases. For dentists, the accreditation pathway matches the dental scope of practice being taught.  This is exactly how proper CME should be allocated to an event and conveyed to potential registrants.

Medical and nursing continuing education: CME credit for live AAFE courses is designated through joint providership with Medical Education Resources (MER, cmepartner.org), an ACCME-accredited provider does not carry the same documentation detail. MER’s name is not displayed on AAFE’s About page, on the foundational course FAQ, or on the AAFE faculty page; the joint-provider statement appears in small print on course descriptions.

Separate courses, separate credit statements: The AAFE schedule sells the Level I Botulinum Toxin course (10 credit hours) and the Level I Dermal Fillers course (10 credit hours) as separately ordered items at $1,797 each or as a bundle for $3,297. For each separately purchased course, the credit designation statement should include the specific course title, the accrediting body, the designated credit type and hours, and the date the activity was approved. For example, the Botulinum Toxin course should have three separate credit statements from AMA, ANCC and AANP if direct credit from all three organizations is given.  The Dermal Filler course would also have three different statements.  A CME approval for a combined course may not be split into two separate components with separate certificates if an attendee chooses to take only one of the two elements.

AANP credit designation: AAFE lists “AANP” credit alongside AMA PRA Category 1, ANCC, and AAPA on the Level I course page in identical visual format. MER’s own published accreditation page at cmepartner.org does not list direct AANP designation. AANP credit may therefore be claimable through an equivalency-upon-submission process to the individual nurse practitioner’s state board rather than through direct AANP designation by the provider. However, equivalency credit is not guaranteed by every state nursing board, and could be granted only on an individual case by case basis. NPs relying on direct AANP credit for recertification (particularly the pharmacology hour requirement) should verify in advance whether AAFE’s designated credit meets the category requirements of her credentialing pathway. Equivalency credit typically does not include pharmacology hours as it is when issued directly from ANCC or AANP.

Verification: Attempts to clarify these credit designations through MER directly have been unsuccessful. Prospective attendees should request the approval letter for the specific class date and course title either from AAFE in writing or directly from MER before paying tuition.

Verification questions worth asking before registration…

1. The course-specific approval letter from MER (or from AAFE) for the exact course title being purchased — Botulinum Toxin Level I, Dermal Fillers Level I, or any combined package — showing accrediting body, credit type, designated hours, and date of approval
2. Whether AANP credit is directly designated by MER for the course, or claimable through state-board equivalency
3. For an NP or RN relying on AAFE credit for recertification, whether pharmacotherapy-category hours are specifically designated. Direct accreditation from AANP or ANCC should contain pharmacology hours for subject matter like this.
4. A sample certificate showing how the course title, activity date, accrediting body, and credit hours appear on the document received after completion

2. Faculty Transparency and Disclosure

Faculty composition. AAFE’s faculty page lists approximately 64 clinical faculty members, of whom 43 (~67%) are dentists or dental specialists. Among the doctorate-credentialed faculty, approximately 92% are dentists. The remaining clinicians on the roster include one MD, one DO, one DNP, one optometrist, one physician assistant, fifteen registered nurses and nurse practitioners combined, and one registered dental hygienist.

A note before going further. Most of what follows is reverse-engineering: examining the published faculty roster, public bios, social media activity, and at least one documented buyer review to infer which faculty members likely teach which courses in which cities. AAFE could simply publish the lead instructor for each scheduled class date and resolve the question directly. They do not, and prospective attendees should evaluate if registering without this information is wise to find out if their clinical hands-on treatment session is being led by a Dentist, RN, Optometrist, MD or NP, and where he/she is actually licensed.

State scope of practice for dentists performing cosmetic injection. The legal authority for general dentists (the majority of AAFE listed faculty) to perform purely cosmetic upper-face injection (the canonical medspa applications) exists in only a minority of US states. California, Maine, Kansas, and New York explicitly restrict general dentists (not oral and maxillofacial surgeons) to therapeutic or dental-related applications. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, Arizona (since 2022), and Texas (since 2025, within oral and maxillofacial regions only) explicitly permit cosmetic use with training. Most other states have not addressed cosmetic dental use in published guidance, leaving scope ambiguous. AAFE markets training across all 50 states (with links to some states inviting private training on-site with a traveling instructor), yet the legal scope for the dental majority of its faculty to perform, and therefore teach with hands-on credibility, purely cosmetic injection exists in fewer states than the marketing implies.

Cross-profession supervisory limitation, even in permissive states. The structural issue for AAFE’s foundational course audience is broader than dental scope. The Marti Law Group, in its analysis of medical aesthetics for dental practices, makes the central point: dental boards regulate dentists, not medical or nursing scope. A dentist supervising an MD, DO, NP, or PA performing injection on a patient, including a training patient, is operating outside any state dental board’s supervisory framework. The same logic applies to the optometrist on the faculty: state optometry boards regulate optometrists, not medical or nursing scope. Even in states where the dentist or optometrist faculty member can lawfully inject within her own scope, she does not hold supervisory authority over the cross-profession clinicians attending her training.  Anyone can lecture on the theory of a medical procedure anywhere, but these courses explicitly include hands-on training injecting FDA-approved pharmaceuticals into live patients which must comply with all licensure, scope of practice and supervisory rules of the state where training is located.

Who is most likely teaching the foundational courses. With dentist faculty unable to supervise non-dental clinicians and the single MD and DO on the roster appearing to be infrequent foundational-class teachers based on published bios, the foundational Toxin and Filler courses for MDs, DOs, NPs, RNs, and PAs are most likely staffed in practice by AAFE’s nurse-credentialed faculty. The Cleveland-based Clinical Director is an RN. Several of the named “full-time clinical faculty” at the Cleveland home base are RNs. Public bios for named NPs at AAFE’s Scottsdale, Denver, and NYC locations describe them as the resident clinical leads, and further research shows that many of the listed NP’s and RN’s on the faculty page hold full-time jobs at other private clinics, not at the AAFE training center address. This is true for the NP’s linked to Scottsdale (aesthetic practice Utah) and New York/Atlanta (medspa at a different NY address, no Georgia clinical link).  Of note, these individuals are duly licensed where they teach, although their “full-time” practice base appears to be different from the AAFE training center address.  At least one buyer review of an AAFE Dallas training class identified the lead instructor as an optometrist, a credential category whose state board does not regulate medical or nursing scope. None of this is concealed maliciously; it is simply not disclosed in advance for any specific class date.

RN and NP faculty face their own supervisory limitations. As mentioned in other reviews where RN and NP faculty are prominently used, RNs in nearly all states require a supervising physician’s treatment plan for prescription medication administration. NPs in most states require either physician collaboration or a protocol agreement with a named supervising physician, and that protocol typically applies to the NP’s own practice in her home state, not to her teaching activities across state lines. An RN or NP teaching hands-on injection in a state where she is not the protocol-of-record clinician does not extend her supervisory authority to the trainees performing injection on training patients in that state. AAFE does not publish the name or licensure status of an in-state supervising physician for any specific class date in any city to independently verify this.

Closed-loop credentialing pattern. Faculty bios on the AAFE faculty page, and published interview videos, describe many of the nurse-credentialed faculty as having entered aesthetic medicine through AAFE’s own training program, then becoming AAFE clinical faculty. This is a documented pattern in the published bios rather than an inference. The technique conventions, dilution standards, complication-handling protocols, and injection-depth defaults a trainee receives from AAFE-trained instructors could trace through a single editorial lineage rooted in dental aesthetic education.  A trainee who has only encountered AAFE technique conventions has not been taught how those conventions compare to community standard of care in MD oversight practices who hire and supervise RN’s, PA’s and NP’s.  

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. The name and credentials of the specific faculty member who will lead the hands-on portion of the class date being considered
2. The name and licensure of the supervising provider for the live patient injection portion of the class at the location being attended
3. Whether the lead instructor’s scope of practice in the training state includes the procedures being taught at the location and date in question
4. For attendees relying on AAFE-trained instructors who themselves were originally AAFE-trained, what other educational lineages those instructors have completed and how much independent practice experience does each one have?

3. Completeness of the First Level Course

The Level I objectives, as published. AAFE’s Level I Botulinum Toxin course objectives describe patient assessment, anatomy of the oral and maxillofacial areas, sterile technique, safety and risk review, in-depth pharmacology, integration into treatment planning, “the latest treatment techniques”, anatomy, and live patient hands-on practice, and complication management. The Level I Dermal Fillers course objectives describe similar territory plus “volumizing nasolabial folds, marionette lines”, and mouth corner treatments along with “beautiful and subtle lip enhancements” (without details regarding wet-dry line vs vermillion border injection techniques) for this foundational, FDA-approved indication.

Specific techniques withheld for paid Level II/III training. These are less vague and may represent omissions from the Level I training:

Industry sources generally describe “Lip Flip”, DAO, and Bunny Lines as foundational toxin injection techniques. Prospective students should evaluate whether they consider these advanced or foundational based on their own clinical reading and professional consultation.  Lip filler injection training without attention to Cupid’s Bow and Philtral columns eliminates essential peri-oral anatomy that should be taught as a unit.  Deferring mid-face or jawline filler niche indications for an advanced course is completely appropriate.  Splitting contiguous lip anatomy into two courses is less defensible.  In addition, Level II and III course outlines tout extending toxin duration to 6 months (not clearly supported by the medical literature) unless endpoints of “duration” are used below patient treatment satisfaction levels.

Finally, AAFE’s FAQ also states that prospective students cannot place directly into Level II or Level III based on experience or prior accredited aesthetic injection training elsewhere. Users should evaluate if these are true academic levels, or a one-way sales funnel.  All students must complete AAFE’s Level I as a prerequisite.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. Whether the specific techniques most likely to be requested by typical aesthetic patients (lip flip, bunny lines, philtral columns and Cupid’s bow lip filler, low-dilution toxin) are included in the foundational Level I training if requested to be done at hands-on.
2. Ensure that the full uses of hyaluronidase as a safety feature of dermal fillers are covered completely in the Level I course and nothing is withheld for Level II.

4. Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost

As of 2025, AAFE updated the Level I Toxin/filler tuition to include 50 units of botulinum toxin and 1 syringe of hyaluronic acid dermal filler for hands-on use during the live patient training portion. This is a meaningful improvement over the prior structure, in which attendees purchased product on-site separately at the start of each training day. The included product floor is industry-leading at the foundational tuition level. However this should be weighed against the tuition price of $3,297 which is more than any other accredited one day foundational toxin and filler training reviewed.

5. Maximum Hands-On Class Size

Class size cap is not published. AAFE’s Level I course pages, FAQ, terms and conditions, and cancellation policy do not specify a maximum class size for the hands-on portion. Buyers paying $3,297 for the combined foundational toxin and filler training cannot determine in advance how many other attendees will be in the same room, nor how many qualified clinical instructors will be supervising hands-on injection.

What the published photos and videos show. AAFE’s website, social media, and at least one publicly available training video (AAFE training session footage) show class sizes of 10 or more providers in a single room, with some photos showing 20–30 attendees. In larger group photos, there does appear to be more than one person in a long white coat, possibly representing faculty.  The cumulative impression from AAFE’s own marketing imagery is that classes can be substantially larger than would be typical for a hands-on injection training experience. More than four observers crowded around a single injection demonstration (in addition to the faculty and provider performing the treatment) is uncomfortable for all involved (especially the patient) and limits the close visual access that makes a hands-on course worthwhile. Watching the other cases clearly is just as important as performing your own hands-on patient yourself.

Industry context for hands-on cap. Industry observation suggests that approximately 5 attendees per qualified instructor allows for optimal hands-on observation and supervision; prospective students should evaluate what ratio suits their learning preferences and confirm the ratio for their specific class date.  Most accredited foundational injection training programs publish their maximum class size as a quality signal — typically in the <10 attendee range. AAFE does not publish its cap or how many seats are available until a date is sold out.

The faculty-to-attendee ratio and qualifications are also not disclosed. Even if a buyer obtained the maximum class size, the answer would be incomplete without knowing how many qualified clinical instructors are supervising the hands-on portion — and what those instructors’ credentials are. A class of 20 attendees supervised by four qualified instructors is structurally different from a class of 20 attendees supervised by one. An MD attending an AAFE Level I course has no way to know in advance whether her assigned hands-on group will be supervised by a fellow physician, an RN, an NP, an optometrist, or a dentist — each of which (per Section 2) raises distinct questions about scope of practice and supervisory authority for her specific profession.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. The maximum class size cap for the specific Level I class date and location being considered
2. The number of qualified clinical instructors scheduled to supervise the hands-on portion of that specific class
3. The credentials (MD, DO, NP, RN, DDS, or other) of each clinical instructor expected to lead hands-on groups, and which instructor will lead the group the attendee is assigned to
4. Whether the class will be split into breakout groups during hands-on practice, and the instructor-to-attendee ratio within those breakouts

6. Location Transparency

Training in hotels or corporate office park suites in order to make quality training more widely available is not a reason to avoid a particular training course if the accreditation, faculty qualifications, agenda, and class size limits are all known and satisfactory. An issue for some potential attendess can be the absence of upfront disclosure about the address and the nature of the facility. All locations should be publicly listed with a complete venue address and non-clinical sites identified as hotels or other academic space.

AAFE markets nine “AAFE Training Centers” (AAFE Locations page) inviting prospective customers to “come see for yourself today.” Three of these correspond to operating affiliated AAFE Medspas; six do not.

Operating AAFE Medspas (clinical operations). Three locations appear on the official aafemedspa.com locations page as functioning medspas: Cleveland (Ohio, AAFE headquarters), Denver (shared branding with Facet Aesthetics LLC), and New York City (operating clinical space with a named NP who also appears to practice primarily elsewhere in NY). These three correspond to real clinical operations with active patient flow, Patient EMR systems, and named clinical leads.

AAFE Training Centers without apparent clinical operations. Six locations are marketed under the “AAFE Training Center” branding but are not tied to an operating medspa: Atlanta, Chicago (potential shared space with a men’s health clinic), Dallas, Las Vegas, Nashville (potential shared space with a behavioral clinic), and Scottsdale. These addresses represent office building suites or borrowed venues that AAFE appears to utilize for class weekends. Documentary evidence includes 404 Not Found pages at aafemedspa.com/atlanta and aafemedspa.com/scottsdale (both linked from Google Places listings), a public commercial real estate listing identifying the Scottsdale address as a “Spec Suite” available for lease October 2026, and an absence of these six locations from the official AAFE Medspa locations roster at aafemedspa.com. Some of these sites have accumulated no new Google reviews in the past year or longer after an initial flurry of activity. The attendee should consider if dedicated space not used clinically on a daily basis could also present logistical issues and oversight of toxin and filler product stored on site between classes.

TBA dates in other cities. AAFE schedules occasional Level I dates in cities not on the Training Center list (including Des Moines and Seattle as two examples) with the specific venue address listed as “TBA.” Buyers register without knowing the exact venue location until close to the class date. A class location listed only as “Seattle” could represent a 10-minute drive or a 60-minute drive plus a toll for the same attendee.  An out of town registrant does not know where to reserve a convenient hotel.

The transparency question. The three categories could deliver materially different trainee experiences regarding access over and above the class size and faculty qualification questions.  While non-clinical space for toxin and filler training itself is not a disqualifying factor, if an attendee prefers to attend training at a fully functioning clinical facility, seeing patients continuously, it should be apparent up front.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. Whether the specific class date and city corresponds to an operating AAFE Medspa on aafemedspa.com or to a Training Center without an operating medspa
2. The full venue address for the specific class date if it is currently listed as “TBA”
3. Who is responsible for post-course follow-up questions or complications, and where they are physically located

7. Board Nomenclature, Society Claims and Membership Upsells

AAFE places significant emphasis on its membership model; however, prospective trainees should understand that continuing membership is not required to maintain the validity of completed training. Post-Graduate educational coursework, once completed, does not require renewal in order to remain part of one’s professional background. The earning of accredited CME further confirms this.  Training is distinct from licensure, and regulatory boards evaluate practitioners based on statutory requirements, not on affiliation with a private training organization.

AAFE’s marketing materials sometimes suggest that its name recognition or ongoing membership provides additional professional protection or standing. While branding creates perceived value, there is no evidence that affiliation with any single private training entity confers regulatory immunity or special recognition by medical or nursing boards. Practitioners should verify independently what their specific state board requires, rather than relying on promotional claims.

It is also important to clarify that AAFE operates as a privately owned, for-profit training company. Unlike independent medical specialty societies, which are typically governed by diverse boards and operate through broadly recognized peer-driven standards, AAFE appears to be internally directed by its own leadership and faculty. Prospective students should understand this structural distinction when evaluating terms such as “academy” or “board.” A true accreditation board accepts applicants who have trained at a wide variety of educational institutions, whereas AAFE will only allow its own trainees into higher level course registration.

Membership renewals are not a regulatory requirement for maintaining prior aesthetic training, nor is aesthetic medicine itself a formally recognized specialty governed by a single national authority. As with any continuing education provider, AAFE’s role is to offer courses—not to function as a licensing or credentialing body. AAFE has historically been active in lobbying on state-level dental scope of practice for aesthetic injections. A prospective student evaluating any continuing education provider should consider what specific regulatory standing such advocacy work confers versus what it does not, and verify with her own state licensing board.

Finally, some programs described as “accreditation” through AAFE are internal designations awarded to individuals who complete its own courses. “Diplomate,” for example, is a term used by American Board of Medical Specialties member boards to designate physicians who completed accredited residency training and passed rigorous board certification examinations; AAFE’s use of the term does not carry that meaning. “Mastership” is another AAFE-centric term. These designations are not equivalent to accreditation by independent, third-party accrediting bodies or specialty medical or nursing education. Prospective participants should review carefully what is being offered and assess whether the designation carries independent recognition beyond the issuing organization. ACCME, AMA, AANP, ANCC, and AAPA do not recognize these terms.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. Whether any AAFE internal designation (Accredited, Fellowship, Mastership, Diplomate) or membership tier is recognized by an external accrediting body, state board, or specialty board the trainee’s credentialing pathway recognizes
2. What specific recurring value the AAFE membership provides beyond what is available to a non-member clinician, and whether that value justifies the annual renewal cost at the membership tier under consideration

8. Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment

When learning a medical procedure in a post-graduate setting, exposure to the didactic material in advance of the live date is superior to learning the basics “cold” in the live setting the same day as hands-on. AAFE delivers foundational Toxin and Filler training as a blended learning experience: a virtual on-demand prerequisite module that attendees complete before arriving for the in-person hands-on weekend. The combined activity is designated for up to 10 credit hours per course (toxin and filler are sold separately as documented in Section 1).

The Level I online prerequisite module length is not disclosed publicly. AAFE does not sell the Level I online module as a standalone product with independent CME credit; it is bundled into the combined Level I activity. Notably, AAFE does extend an “applicable to live tuition” policy to one of its other course offerings: the Level III online course sold separately allows the buyer to apply the cost of the online purchase to subsequent live hands-on training. The structural inconsistency is that the same model is not extended to Level I.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. The length in hours of the online prerequisite module for the Level I Toxin course and the Level I Filler course and the technology platform used for delivery.
2. Are updates to the online course included, or is it a one-time purchase?
3. Can the attendee review the online material after the live course is completed, and if so, for how long?

9. No Risk of Paid Models at the Live Training

In 2025, AAFE shifted to a “bring your own model” structure for foundational Level I training rather than recruiting paid patients from the community to fill training rosters. This is a meaningful improvement over the prior structure and over competitors that still recruit paid models.

The ideal training setup is treating someone known to the trainee at the hands-on — a patient the trainee will continue to see and follow after the course ends. This reduces the litigation risk of treating strangers at a training event and supports continuity of care for the model patient. The model should be consented as a patient of the faculty’s practice if the treatment occurs in a clinical facility.

One documented exception. AAFE Medspa NYC, the operating clinical site at one of AAFE’s three verified clinical locations, maintains a public “Model Patient Services” booking program through its electronic medical records system. The booking page describes a model patient consultation, requires a signed model release form and photography rights, and offers treatment at a discounted rate. Whether this booking system supplies model patients for AAFE training classes held at the NYC location, or whether it operates exclusively for the local clinical practice apart from training, is not disclosed in AAFE’s published policies. A trainee at the NYC location should ask directly whether her hands-on model patient was recruited through this program.

If you are considering AAFE for foundational training, ensure that you can bring your own model patient, that the model is treated under the supervising faculty member’s licensed scope of practice, and that the faculty member at your specific class location holds the licensure and supervisory authority required to oversee a clinician of your profession.

Verification questions worth asking before registration

1. Whether AAFE will allow the trainee to bring a friend or relative as the hands-on model patient at any class location, including AAFE-affiliated medspas
2. Whether any model patient provided by an AAFE-affiliated medspa was recruited or paid for the student treatment through the medspa’s booking system, and whether the trainee has the option to decline that patient and use her own model instead
3. The supervisory framework that applies to the model patient’s treatment — specifically, who holds the legal supervisory responsibility for the procedure performed on the model during the training class. Is the model consented as a patient of the supervising provider/AAFE faculty?

10. General Transparency, Structural Findings, and Paths to Resolution

As a medical professional, when you enter into a post-graduate education arrangement with another healthcare organization owned by medical professionals, you should feel treated like a colleague and not misled or over-sold anything. Let’s break down what you need to know to decide if that AAFE training course near you should be your choice for foundational training.

Physicians, nurses, NPs and PAs deserve accredited training in the foundations of these aesthetic procedures free from noise and upselling. And AAFE has many of the resources and elements to deliver that.  But at the present time, there are some additional features to evaluate prior to registration:

The “accreditation” conflation

A prospective student looking for AAFE’s continuing education accreditation information might naturally click the “Accreditation” tab in the main website navigation. The page at that location (facialesthetics.org/levels-of-accreditation) does not surface AAFE’s actual CME accreditation through AGD PACE, ADA CERP, or its joint providership with Medical Education Resources. Instead it lists four AAFE-internal designations — Accredited, Fellowship, Mastership, Diplomate — with links to paid examination pathways for each. These levels mirror frequent flier status tiers more than they resemble any standardized and universally accepted level of medical education. AAFE holds legitimate CME accreditation from external accrediting bodies which is important for attendees to consider, but uses the term “Accreditation” for the internal designation pathway. The four-tier designations on the “Accreditation” page (Accredited, Fellowship, Mastership, Diplomate) are AAFE-internal labels with no external recognition from ACCME, ABMS, AANP, ANCC, AAPA, or any state medical, nursing, or dental licensing board. They function as marketing within the AAFE ecosystem rather than credentials recognized by employers, credentialing bodies, or state regulators. A prospective attendee should weigh the conflating of an important term in continuing education to introduce a sales funnel for unrecognized levels of “achievement” in her own choice of a training provider relationship.

Levels of Training

In addition, the multi-level training structure (Level I, II, III plus three Master Series certifications) creates friction beyond the $3,297 cost of the foundational Toxin and Filler course marketed to medical professionals. The pathway implies that a clinician completing Level I may be undertrained for indications that could be included in the foundational training at other accredited programs. This should also be weighed before paying for Level I and attending.

One specific aspect of AAFE’s Level I/Level II structure warrants particular attention. Many HA dermal filler products carry FDA approval for “lip augmentation and correction of perioral rhytids” — a single integrated indication that, per the supporting clinical trials for products like Restylane Kysse, encompasses the vermillion body, vermillion border, Cupid’s bow, philtral columns, and oral commissures as treatment sites within the same on-label indication. There is structural logic to reserving niche indications for paid advanced courses.  For example, the cheek augmentation indication for Juvederm Voluma, or the jawline indication for Juvederm Volux, are legitimately distinct anatomical regions with product-specific labeling, and a successful aesthetic practice can be built without offering either. Splitting a single FDA-approved lip indication for a single product across two paid courses, however, is a different category of structural choice. A clinician completing AAFE Level I Dermal Fillers cannot competently perform the full FDA-approved lip and peri-oral indication that the products she is using are labeled for if Cupids Bow and philtral columns are withheld for Level II training. 

Independent confirmation from AAFE’s own testimonials

These structural observations are independently corroborated by a handful of recent attendee reviews surfaced below the 4- and 5-star content on AAFE’s own testimonials page. One June 2026 attendee reported being told in advance that Level I would include lip, nasolabial fold, and maxillary injection and discovering at the training that some indications were withheld for Level II. Another May 2026 attendee described the online course website as difficult to navigate, the pre-course information as not easy to find, and the curriculum slides as needing a revamp, although in contrast a 2023 reviewer called the online training too long. A third recent attendee, describing a small 5-person hands-on class with 5 patients, reported the instructor as disorganized and informal, having to remind the instructor that consents needed to be signed before injection, and feeling she had to do most of the learning on her own. AAFE deserves credit for leaving these reviews accessible on its own site, though the review board has been noticeably quieter on engagement and responses over the past year. No new 5 or 4 star reviews have been posted in the 12 months prior to this review. Many older reviews praise the training and live hands-on experience although few mention the individual instructors by name.

Credit statement specificity

AAFE is inconsistent with their published accreditation statement. It is incomplete and often missing from key pages compared to their dental credit statement which is boldly displayed in most locations. AAFE could be an industry leading option for a single day of medical provider blended CME credit hours once AAFE provides more specificity on their credit statement for the individual Toxin and Dermal Filler courses, and the pharmacology hours to confirm true ANCC and AANP credit, not an equivalency potential off of an AMA or medical society level accreditation. Posting the full certification letter with the course titles would easily verify their accreditation for doctors and nurses.

Faculty and location transparency

AAFE chooses to not publish individual faculty names and attendance caps for every course date, nor do they publish the exact meeting location for each of their remote training cities. Doing this would improve transparency to the potential attendee and show that AAFE has nothing to hide when asking a prospective student to trust them with their hard-earned tuition dollars.

The burden of asking versus the responsibility of publishing

A common thread across these observations is the burden AAFE places on the prospective student to ask questions that a transparent training provider would publish in advance. Class size, faculty credentials and identity, exact venue address, complete CME credit statement, and the actual content covered at the foundational tier — all of these are answerable in writing by AAFE before registration. A prospective student who has to request each of these individually is doing the diligence work the provider itself could do at the point of marketing.

Welcome changes to help new providers make an informed choice

Smart professionals can read through internal achievement levels and marketing crescendos. The material improvements that would help a discerning attendee make a foundational training decision are concrete and operationally straightforward:

1. Faculty transparency for each class date — the lead instructor’s name and credentials, the number of additional qualified hands-on instructors, and the on-site supervising physician published before registration opens
2. Location transparency for every class — the complete venue address, with identification of the venue type (operating AAFE Medspa, office building suite, hotel conference center) for each scheduled class
3. Credit statement detail for each separately-purchased foundational course — the full activity announcement letter from Medical Education Resources showing the AMA PRA Category 1, ANCC, AANP, and pharmacology hour designations for the Level I Toxin course and the Level I Dermal Fillers course as individual products
4. A more inclusive foundational curriculum — including all the FDA-approved indications and the straightforward, commonly-requested, straightforward, off-label techniques in Level I rather than reserving them for paid advanced courses

AAFE’s schedule of dates and location availability is unmatched anywhere in the aesthetic training industry.  Reducing friction for a medical or nursing provider to make a fully informed choice would go a long way toward providing a verifiable and consistent accredited training option for doctors, nurses and PA’s.