What is a medical spa and how is it different than a day center? A medical spa is essentially the same as a day spa with the primary difference being that it operates under the supervision of a licensed health care professional.
These centers may offer procedures that can only be administered by a licensed medical practitioner or treat facial and body conditions that cannot be treated by estheticians alone.
Here's a quick overview of medical spa services.
In general these services include: * Laser and IPL (intense pulsed light) procedures * Medical mircrodermabrasions * Photofacials * Botox and restylane injections and other fillers * Medical peels and skin tightening Most of these centers are designed to enhance outer beauty and inner wellness.
They attempt to do this by providing a safe, relaxing, and aesthetically pleasing environment just like the day spas.
However patients have reported that medical spas often do not feel as relaxing as day spas but more like a medical clinic.
The supervising doctors may be practitioners of internal medicine, family practice, dermatology, plastic surgery, chiropractics, doctors of naturopathic medicine, or doctors of another specialty.
Often medical spas are made up of a combination of doctors with many of these specialties.
Larger medical spas with a wide range of specialties allow them to offer additional services including acupuncture, nutrition counseling, massage therapy, dermatology, exercise training, stress management, and weight loss assistance.
Some medical spas are much smaller in scale and may, for example, be a spa attached to the practice of an individual plastic surgeon looking to sell more to his patients working on their appearance.
Whatever size or style of wellness center you choose, make sure to use common sense and use good judgment when considering doctors' advice.
People tend to give more credence to doctors' suggestions when in reality they may just be making a sale rather than prescribing a completely necessary procedure.
Another piece of advice when selecting your center: check to see if the medical practitioner will really be overseeing the procedure.
Regulations vary from state to state; some require the doctor to be onsite and overseeing each of the actual procedures, but other states do not even require the doctors to be on the premises.
In some situations, doctors just lend their name to the institution and collect a percentage of the profits.
You should also research the techniques and the equipment that each wellness resort uses.
The equipment in the medical spa industry is always improving and changing and you will want to make sure that you choose the spa that utilizes the latest and greatest technology.
Choosing such a center will make it more likely that you will receive the least painful treatments possible.
But remember that the latest technology comes with a high price.
Medical spa treatments and packages can be very expensive but that is because the machinery and the equipment itself, is very expensive.
Keep this in mind when considering how much you will pay for medical spa services.