AMET is a commonly used abbreviation for aestheticmedicaleducators.com. This is a private company based in Texas that offers Botox Training and training in fillers and other injectables in the United States. Let’s look at all publicly available information and see if there is truth to the rumor that AMET uses instructors who are unlicensed.
If you are interested in Botox and Filler Training, you have likely seen AMET courses in Google Ads and on the first page of Google Search. But is this prominent placement justified and are they your best choice for one-stop aesthetic hands-on training? They have a robust social media presence and spend a lot of money behind the scenes to create relevancy to Google by paying for backlinks and for Google Ads. Of course, ultimately the customer bears these fees, but is Aesthetic Medical Educators Botox Training a good value for MD’s, NP’s and RN’s? We will put AMET to the test with our 50-point evaluation system. All information on this page is retrieved from items publicly available online.
Multi-Point AMET Botox Training Review
Each Category shall receive a weighted score depending on how well the training meets the standard.
Total Score: 15 out of 50 Points.
1. CME Accreditation for MD, DO, NP, PA, RN’s (Score 5 out of 10)
The word “certification” is used prominently by this training program, yet it has no formal legal meaning. It just means receipt of a piece of paper. The standard for post-graduate education is CME or CEU-accredited training that is peer reviewed and backed by an organization called a “joint sponsor” who is authorized to award AMA Category 1 Credits which are the only credits accepted for physicians, NP’s, PA’s and nurses.
It appears that AMET courses are registered for CME credit for the above specialties co-sponsored by American Academy of Family Practice. This accreditation seems to be current.
However, AMET uses online content (“hybrid courses”) to pre-train students in advance and has cut down the live hands-on time in half to allow for the training of two classes of 8 students into one day. They cannot offer 9.75 credits for only 4 hours of live contact time when the online component is not separately accredited.
2. Faculty Qualifications and Transparency (Score 0 out of 10)
AMET makes sure NOT to list faculty anywhere on their website. This can mean they have something to hide.
It is crucial to know the qualifications of the person teaching you, but also to make sure that your training is not occurring in a crime scene, where a visiting faculty member is not even licensed in the state of the course, leaving the attendees who are, liable for treatments inside that training class.
By searching some third party sites, A-T.com was able to identify the name of an AMET instructor for courses sold to be held in New York and in North Carolina at hotels. She is Mayra Crespo, a Nurse practitioner who is based and licensed in New Jersey. When searching both the New York, North Carolina and Nursing Compact license databases, she was not licensed in either New York or North Carolina. Do not attend any course where your instructor is not known, or not licensed in the location of the course.
Reviews here seem to also indicate a variable quality of the teaching and many course cancellations with little notice.
If you plan on registering for a AMET class, please contact them first and ask for the name and degree of the instructor. Then go to the state nursing board website where the class is held and be certain that nurse has an active medical license in that state. Then if she does, do your due diligence on her experience level.
It is difficult to know who the owner of AMET is, but in general, you want to train from organizations that are run completely by medical professionals and not businesspeople who add nothing to the curriculum. A search of LinkedIN shows that Cole Lopez is listed as the president of AMET and he has no medical background. Remember that the more non-medical people involved in a training, the more diluted that your tuition dollar may get before your training is delivered.
3. Completeness of the First Level Course. (Score 3 out of 10)
It is difficult enough to calculate the cost of training when factoring in your time commitment and travel. However, when training is incomplete, or you have no idea how much hands-on experience is guaranteed, that makes it even harder.
Here is a comment from one of the their actual attendees…
Took the botox dermal filler class. Big pitch on discount for advanced class if purchase during this beginners class at discount. Required $500 deposit and instruction to gain experience for 6 months to 1 year before attending advanced class. I since decided not to continue my practice and contacted them to request return of my deposit. I was informed that deposit was non-refundable. This was not disclosed in the class when purchase was made. I contacted customer service and the Director without a response back. I feel totally ripped off. If you attend this class do not expect alot of hands on experience and do not place deposits for future classes. Very disappointed and would not recommend.
The standard here is to teach everything that is FDA-cleared and off-label indications that work in the level 1 course. This includes using the most concentrated dilution for Botox. Most people learn a 1cc dilution for a vial of toxin, yet AMET considers this “advanced”. Looking at the limited information taught in Level 1, and the important basic information reserved for Level 2, it is apparent that their business model is to sell high-priced “advanced courses” which cost a total of $3,750 and travel for two different weekends, just to get what others teach for $1,000 less in one weekend. For more information please check out this video.
4. Transparency Regarding Hands-On Product Provided in Tuition Cost. (Score 0 out of 5)
Nowhere do they guarantee how much actual product you will get to inject under supervision.
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. At these tuition prices, real US-sourced product should be included. However AMET recruits patients from each local area to purchase the toxin and filler that you will be using on them. This makes your treatment of them “work for hire” and has a much higher medical liability risk than treating a volunteer in an educational environment. Moreover, if the instructor, who should be named on the consent form as the treating provider is not licensed where she teaches, even more problems can arise.
Moreover, if you specifically want experience to do certain areas, you should be able to bring a friend or relative to get a free treatment while you practice those areas and can follow her results. That does not happen at AMET. Because recruiting paid models is a main profit center for them, you have no idea what kind of hands-on experience you will get. There are reports of patients being overtreated and a ratio of 6 students per one patient. This is unacceptable.
Here in their own words from their FAQ page:
- AMET cannot guarantee a specific number of injections during Botox and other training courses … the amount of hand-on (sic) training you receive depends on the number of participants as well as the number of models present and their specific needs.
5. Maximum Hands-On Class Size (2 out of 5)
Looking at social media photos and other images available online, it appears that classes may be as large as 8 students per provider. They state that their maximum class size is 10 for only one instructor. This is too large for a single day training to fully cover the patient selection and didactics in addition to enough one-on-one hands-on.
6. Location Transparency (Score 0 out of 3)
Exact location is not anywhere to be found on the AMET website. No address or map. Digging around some third party sites showed most classes were held at hotels, but only a small fraction of the live dates could be verified on these other sites.
7. No Fake Boards, Fake Society, or Membership Upsells (Score 2 out of 5)
Memberships, renewals and such are not required for any kind of training status over the long-term. Training is training. Aesthetics is not a medical specialty. AMET is not an authority for an industry. They are a for-profit training center that offers single day education courses. That is all.
Moreover, they use the terminology “Master Injector” for some of their faculty and this is also a scam. It is a meaningless title that has no verifiable weight at all. Yet one would think they push their advanced course and throw around terms like “master injector” to get their customers to spend nearly $4,000 for this fake title.
8. Offers a Blended Online plus Live Learning Environment (Score 2 out of 5)
It appears that their Botox and Filler courses which are purchased separately but held on the same date have an online component. They call these “hybrid courses” but their accreditation does not cover the online part of these hybrid courses, only the live contact time. That would mean that these hybrid courses would only qualify for 4 hours of credit, not the 9.75 hours that they advertise.
However, based on the class sizes seen in pictures, it would not be possible for that many people to have a proper review of the online material, Q&A, patient evaluations, and perform one-on-one treatments in under 4 hours for a Botox class and 4 hours for dermal filler class..
9. No Risk of Paid Models at the Live Training (Score: 0 of 2)
You are paying a lot of money for this training. You do not expect your training company to also profit by taking money from unvetted and unexamined patients in the community to then serve as your patient for your first treatment. They prominently advertise for paid patients at the top of their home page, yet nowhere on the website do they identify a single faculty member or the owner of the training program.
It is a recipe for disaster and has resulted in more than one unassuming nurse or NP getting sued when treating a stranger out of state.
When you treat someone who pays to be there, you establish a provider-patient relationship with them. You could get sued. And patients who pay for a treatment (not volunteer) have higher expectations and less tolerance for bad outcomes. Moreover, if your instructor is an RN and you are higher level, you are responsible for that outcome. Don’t take these risks.
AMET is very aggressive about recruiting and profiting from paid patients in communities and since their faculty often travels, they cannot be responsible for any after care of these patients that you treat.
Here you can read many angry testimonials from “models” and from attendees of AMET courses.
10. General Truthfulness and Accessibility (Score: 1 of 5)
You don’t know who owns the company, and the names of the people teaching each date are a tightly guarded secret. You do not know the exact location, the course outlines are vague, and the online reviews are quite negative.
Other than that it seems fine.
When you enter into a teaching relationship, it should be collegial and not adversarial. The tone of these responses gives you a good idea of the management of this company.
Please use your own judgment when reading their reviews. Most tend to have a very similar format and tone. Names of instructors, even when gushing and glowing, are redacted and read as “*******”. What are they hiding? Are their instructors underpaid and underqualified? Or is it just that they are not licensed and they don’t want to be caught since it is hard for the FBI to raid a course where the location is not public.