Nowadays many dermatologists’ offices have become spa centers offering many of the same services a salon or spa would, such as light chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and even facials (applying masks to the skin), waxing, and manicures. Going to a doctor’s office for these kinds of spa procedures can be pricey because you end up paying a premium for getting it done there even when the procedure is performed by an aesthetician, nurse practitioner, assistant, or often just a receptionist the doctor has trained.
When dermatologists enter the spa business it’s controversial. Some doctors see it as a natural evolution of what dermatologists already do, that is, taking care of skin. In defending the potential breach of ethics, physicians often assert that they take spa procedures and make them more “medical,” or make these treatments safer and more effective. There is no research showing that to be true, but doctors too can be vulnerable to exaggeration, fluff, and bogus declarations of efficacy.
What medical spas can provide that salons and nonmedical spas can’t are prescriptions like Renova or Retin-A, liposuction, removing surfaced veins or capillaries, and injection of dermal fillers and Botox. While those additions are nice, there is no regulation or industry standard for medical spas, so the name on the door does not guarantee you any official standard. The general guideline is to make sure the spa is indeed run by a dermatologist or plastic surgeon and not by an internist or dentist (yes, dentists have gone into the medical spa business).
Adding to the questionable facade of medical ethics, some physicians sell skin-care products claiming they are cosmeceuticals and somehow special and different from products sold by the rest of the industry. Sadly, there is no truth to this; it is false advertising at its best. When you hear the word “cosmeceutical,” you’re supposed to think the product is a blend of cosmetic ingredients and pharmaceutical-grade ingredients and, therefore, it must be better for your skin. The fact is, “cosmeceutical” is just a trumped-up word that has no legal or recognized meaning as to what ingredients it contains versus the content of any “non-cosmeceutical” cosmetic.
A quick comparison of ingredient lists reveals that there is nothing any more unique or pharmaceutical about cosmeceuticals than any other cosmetic in the cosmetics industry. There are no ingredients used in products formulated by physicians that can’t be used by any other cosmetics company, and there are lots of cosmeceutical lines that aren’t as well formulated as other product lines without the medical marketing strategy.
Bottom line: The FDA does not consider the term “cosmeceutical” to be a valid product class, so the term isn’t regulated. There are no unique formulary standards or special ingredients for these products. Cosmeceutical is merely a marketing term, and nothing more. Anyone can use that term to represent their brand’s identity (Source: www. fda. gov).
According to the American Academy of Dermatology (www. aad. org), “the answer to whether or not cosmeceuticals really work lies in the ingredients and how they interact with the biological mechanisms that occur in aging skin.” But of course that’s true for any cosmetic. Even doctors can be seduced by their own hype into using a coined, misleading term so they can sell skin-care products and market them as different.