Step 4 — Avoid These Traps and Scams in Aesthetic Training Programs

  This is the section nobody wants to write.  But ever since aesthetic training began, there have been training programs that are inadequate, underqualified, or outright scams.  This problem has accelerated since the pandemic to the point where the reputation aesthetic procedures will suffer as more unqualified practitioners enter the industry.  If you learn anything from this website, please heed these warnings and avoid these common scams.

1. Unaccredited Training

This was covered under Step 3 but it must be mentioned here again.  Certification means the awarding of an accredited training certificate upon successful completion of training.  A piece of paper earned after an unaccredited training is just a piece of paper.  It is not certification.

2.  Fake Board Certification and Societies

Aesthetics is a group of services and procedures.  It is not a medical specialty, and it never will be one.  There is no official Board Certification, No “American Society of X” or “International Society of Y” that you must be a member of.  You need accredited training in each procedure you plan to practice, work under the state supervisory rules for your licensure, and be properly insured.  There is no benefit for being a member of a Society nor is there a recognized credential in aesthetic procedures you can use after your name.  Do not pay any training provider for any membership, fellowship, or board certification and definitely do not pay for ongoing renewal of such certification.  The only exception is if you want credits again for a new CME cycle for your license renewal, which is once every 2 years.  That is completely optional.

3.  Fake Titles

There are also NO accepted definitions in aesthetic medicine for terms like “Fellow”, “Mastership”, “Diplomate”, “Master Injector”, “Advanced Injector”, or any combination of such.  There are no ranks or levels of expertise that are accepted legal descriptions.  You are either a Nurse, NP, PA, MD who is trained to perform aesthetic procedures.  That’s it.  Everything, including the terms we suggest using like “aesthetic provider” or “aesthetic professional” (that don’t cost money to use) are not regulated either.  Do NOT pay a course to earn a

 marketing term that anyone can use and has no accepted legal meaning.

4.  Mystery Faculty and Locations

You are paying a lot of money for training and you deserve to know who will be leading your training and the exact address of the training program.  Any program who does not list these two important items is trying to hide something.  Perhaps the faculty member is unqualified and they don’t want you doing your own research.  Perhaps they are not licensed where they are teaching or they are working outside of their scope of practice, and don’t want law enforcement to visit and check.  Over 1/3 of trainees take multiple training courses in the same subject before attempting to practice because the first training experience was so poor.  

5.  Avoid Companies that Sell Different Levels of Training

These are procedures, not specialties.  The basic injection technique for the common indications is virtually identical to the technique for less common indications.  The only difference is the judgement needed to choose the right indication for the right patient, not any additional hands-on skill that needs to be supervised.  Therefore any company that offers a “Basic” and “Advanced” course in the same subject, has already made the highly unethical decision to withhold information from the basic course until you pay for a second course.  Even worse offenders are the “Level 1”, “Level 2”, and “Level 3” trainings.  They attract you with a cheap Level 1 course so you think you are getting a bargain, and by the time you complete all 3 levels you have paid nearly $9,000 for what others offer for under $3,000.

There really are no “basic” and “advanced” levels of these procedures.  There are indications that patients want and work well with a very low complication rate and high satisfaction.  Then there are the fringe indications which require very detailed patient selection, and suffer from unpredictable results and complications.  By learning the judgment to say “no” to fringe applications in most patients, you will build the busiest and most successful practice.  These fringe indications are not advanced, they are stupid.  Which is why one training company’s Level 3 class spends nearly half of the syllabus time on managing complications!

6.  Legal Risks of Treating Model Patients Unknown to you

While many students travel to training and do not want the extra step of finding a friend or relative to treat for the hands-on portion, when you treat a stranger in a training environment it opens up a bag of potential legal risks.  Any model patient treated should be known to you or the instructor and the instructor should be on the consent form as the treatment provider or supervisor of the treatment.  The patient should have the ability to follow up with the instructor or with another clinician if the person is not already known to you.

1. If you outrank the instructor or if the instructor is not licensed in the state of training, YOU will be the primary target of liability if that patient has a bad outcome.  An instructor who calls herself a Nurse Practitioner but is not specifically licensed as a Nurse Practitioner by the nursing board in the state of training, is functioning as an RN if she is licensed as an RN at all.  RN’s cannot design treatments and cannot supervise your hands-on.

2. Trial attorneys have planted model patients and then file frivolous lawsuits against the visiting training company and you the trainee.  These are very expensive to dismiss and you will be personally liable.  You will have to hire an attorney in the county of the training, not where you live or work.

3.  Do not treat a stranger patient who pays to be there.  If a site has a link for “model patients” to pay, do not take their training.  This creates a different provider-patient relationship with additional legal risks than treating a volunteer for the purposes of education.  You are paying to get trained.  Do not set yourself up for additional legal risk by allowing them to profit additionally from your work while they are teaching you.  If the training is done in a full-time clinical facility and you are treating a paying patient of a faculty member who is listed on the consent form, then this would be acceptable.