Where are the Best Aesthetic Medical Educators?
Which Botox® and Filler Training courses are actually CME Accredited?
Who also trains in PRP, Microneedling, PDO Threads and Sclerotherapy?
Which training programs try to upsell “advanced” courses, memberships and fake board certification?
For the first time, all of the most popular training programs are compared in one place. Hopefully you can start here and find the program that best meets your needs. It is possible to take the worst training program and still be successful through self-study, hard work, keenly listening to your patients’ needs, and learning from experience over time. However, the road to success is a much easier journey if you get the right start with fully accredited training, learning treatment design and clinical judgment from experienced professionals, and have the ongoing support after the training is complete.
Researching the best aesthetic training programs takes some effort. The programs that consistently top organic search like Aesthetic Medical Educators, American Academy of Facial Aesthetics, and Empire Medical Training all suffer fatal flaws that you can see in the tables below. Please read the fine print on these three companies, and try to identify the name and qualifications of who will be teaching your course and the street address where it will meet, and then ask yourself, “what are they trying to hide?”. And why are they pushing memberships? Is it for your benefit, or for their benefit?
Please note, all information on the tables below is believed correct as of the query date in each table key. Only information readily available on each companies website is displayed here. Social media channels were not reviewed. This website does not recommend or endorse any one training program nor does any training program sponsor this site. This site does not accept any sponsorship, but we will correct any errors in the tables below quickly in order to give you the most accurate information available. Training programs can email us with any corrections to the address at the bottom of this page.
SEE THE TABLES BELOW FOR ALL OF THE JUDGING CRITERIA AND FIND OUT HOW EACH OF THE MAJOR TRAINING PROGRAMS COMPARE…
TOP AESTHETIC TRAINING PICK
For MD’s, NP’s, RN’s, PA’s and other eligible non-dentists
PracticalCME is the only training program that is fully accredited, has at least 10 training sites, all-MD faculty, the convenience of blended online and live hands-on learning along with a full menu of the most popular aesthetic and wellness services.
PracticalCME also refrains from offering fake board certification, titles or unnecessary memberships with renewals. Therefore, it wins for ethical treatment of it’s customers as well.
HONORABLE MENTION
For Dentists Only
American Academy of Facial Aesthetics classes taught by dentists (not the nurse-taught classes) excel in unique dental applications of Botox germane to the practice of dentistry and have dental CME credits. However, AAFE charges extra for all Botox and Filler used at hands-on, so add this additional cost to the tuition quoted.
Table 1 -- Training Program Accreditation, Class Size, and Faculty
➡️Qualifications for this list: Organization must be in the Top 30 on Google for the search “Botox Training” or “Botox and Filler training” and have courses open and listed on their website. If dates are not listed and bookable, then the company is not listed here. Individual preceptorships are not listed as none have full Accreditation.
KEY: # of Locations means number of different US locations that had seats available for purchase at time of query. Accreditation must be stated with number of credit hours and joint sponsor to get the checkmark. Hands-On Class size mentioned here if stated. If not stated but any photos show a group of 10 or more then that will be displayed. Faculty and Location transparency: If they specify the Guaranteed amount of hands-on product included in the tuition, then it earns a checkmark here. Hands-on time alone does not count. If they list the faculty name teaching at each location, then a check is earned. If all dates are taught by MD’s, it earns a check, or DDS for dental credit courses, then it earns a “DDS” designation. If the street address of the location is listed for each date, then that earns a checkmark.
* Only one MD on faculty who teaches at a few locations. Others taught by NP’s, PA’s and dentists.
** The only faculty member listed for Dermamedical at the US training courses comes from the UK and does not have a US medical license in any state he teaches.
*** On hands-on, AAFE states “cost of product is not included in course tuition”. According to the AAFE website, on some pages the PACE General Dentistry CME expired 3/31/23. Many AAFE dates have a Botox® class agenda heavily weighted toward dental indications since their teaching faculty is Dentists and RN’s. A-T.com tried 3 times to independently verify their CME credit for non-dentists and their quoted CME provider would not confirm the credit.
****No people are listed on the Texaslasers website but on their YouTube channel, the person who teaches the advanced BTX/Filler course identified herself as an esthetician.
# AMET Saturday courses only meet for 4 hours live and require the user to watch an unaccredited webinar in advance. This is below their stated approved 7.5 CME credit hours.
^ Empire and AAOPM are owned by the same person. AAOPM is simply a fake board certification/membership company superimposed on top of the Empire training courses. These ratings refer to the combined offering of both websites. 3% charge is added to all credit card orders.
The most egregious finding on this chart is that the two companies that have the most Google traffic have ZERO transparency for location and faculty member at each course date. This is below the industry standard and the standards for CME accreditation.
Of course, if you want more information, please contact the training course providers. If they do disclose more information than what is contained on the website, ask why such information like faculty, location, and amount of hands-on product supplied is not listed on the website.
Query date: 7/29/24. Information sources are the organizations’ respective website. A-T.com does not warrant any of these companies’ websites to be fully truthful and up to date which can make this information also incorrect. For instance, an organization can claim to be accredited but does not have accreditation paid for and effective for every date and every class that they teach.
Table 2 -- Classes Offered for Each Training Program
Note: Blended Online Before Live Training: Means that online training is offered prior to the live date. Some companies charge extra for this. PracticalCME’s online training is also accredited for CME.
* nationallaserinstitute PRP and PDO thread training requires a 4-day or 9-day course commitment. Cannot be taken separately.
** PracticalCME only offers CME-accredited PDO thread training as an online course pre-qualifying participants to take hands-on with thread manufacturer hands-on courses.
^ Empire and AAOPM are owned by the same person. AAOPM is simply a fake board certification/membership company superimposed on top of the Empire training courses. These ratings refer to the combined offering of both websites. Blended training is listed as “optional” and an additional $500 charge when reserving a live date. 3% is added to credit card orders.
Query date: 6/24/24. Information sources are the organizations’ respective website. A-T.com does not warrant any of these companies’ websites to be fully truthful and up to date which can make this information also incorrect. For instance, an organization can claim to be accredited but does not have accreditation paid for and effective for every date and every class that they teach.
Table 3 -- "Buyer Beware" Issues
➡️ On this list, a 😡 mark should make you investigate a training program further and see if this issue is a deal breaker for you. Contact the training program for more information, and ask them to update their website to be more accurate about their offerings should they tell you this chart is incorrect.
* Empire, Esiw and ABAM state they will cancel any course that does not have a minimum number of attendees and are not responsible for lost expenses due to non-refundable flights and hotels. ABAM states CME credit hours on some courses but does not state the joint provider or type of credit, therefore, it is not accredited by our definition.
** AMET is the only one on this list that does not have a single person (faculty, administrator, owner) listed by name. If they are not listed, then we cannot assume any MD’s are on faculty until they are willing to list their names publicly.
^ Empire and AAOPM are owned by the same person. AAOPM is simply a fake board certification/membership company superimposed on top of the Empire training courses. These ratings refer to the combined offering of both websites. 3% is added to all credit card orders.
Query date: 6/24/24. Information sources are the organizations’ respective website. A-T.com does not warrant any of these companies’ websites to be fully truthful and up to date which can make this information also incorrect. For instance, an organization can claim to be accredited but does not have accreditation paid for and effective for every date and every class that they teach.
