Want to look your very best by channelling a younger version of yourself at upcoming Christmas and New Year parties? Botox is very effective. It relaxes your facial muscles to stop them from contracting and removes the lines and wrinkles which contribute to you looking older. This is a treatment, which effectively turns back the clock to make you look more youthful. Read More…

Are you fed up of looking at your lines and wrinkles in the mirror every morning? Wish you could turn the clock back a few years to look younger, fresher and less tired? Elan Medical anti-wrinkle Botox injections can do exactly that. The treatment takes minutes, there’s no down time and you could be looking significantly rejuvenated by the end of the week! Read More…

The rise in popularity of beauty bloggers never fails to amaze our dermatology team at Elan Medical Skin Clinics in Essex and central

London.

We seem to be constantly fighting the cosmetic babble of advice, tips, myths and downright untruths from people with a huge following yet very little in the way of expertise.

Sue Ibrahim, our resident nurse consultant in dermatology said: “The beauty bloggers and vloggers often do more harm than good. Please take their advice with extreme caution and if in doubt speak to an expert.”

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Hardly a week goes by without us receiving desperate calls from anxious members of the public worried that their Botox or skin filler treatment has gone horribly wrong. In the vast majority of cases, the person concerned has a treatment at a conveyor belt “Botox Party” or from a beauty salon where a visiting nurse or doctor visits once a month to carry out treatments. Many of these practitioners dabble in medical aesthetics as a way of supplementing their income. They flit from venue to venue offering cut price treatments having had no more than a half day course in administering Botox and skin fillers. Then when complications occur, they are difficult to get hold of, never answer their mobile phones and are told by the salon that the practitioner will not be back again for 4 weeks.

The medical aesthetic industry is unregulated in England. This means that anyone can open a clinic and administer skin filler injections. Even though Botox is a prescription only medication, illegal supplies of Botox are being administered by beauty therapists, hairdressers without the patient ever seeing a doctor or prescribing nurse.

So how do you ensure that your face will be in a safe pair of hands?

Sue Ibrahim, is a Dermatology Nurse Consultant with over 15 years experience within the medical aesthetic industry. This is her advice on choosing a practitioner:

• Make sure your practitioner is a medical doctor registered with the GMC or a registered nurse that is registered with the NMC. Ask for their registration numbers; check them out.
• Ask your practitioner how many procedures like the one you are seeking they carry out on a weekly basis and for how many years they have been in practice.
• Ask you practitioner how often they visit the location in which you are being treated. If it is only once every few weeks then consider what you will do if something goes wrong.
• Ask your practitioner how many complications they have had to deal with over the past year. If the practitioner say that they never have any complications then consider this:

If a practitioner has never had a complication, then they are not treating many people.

If a practitioner has never dealt with a complication, will they know what to do if you have a complication?

• Can the practitioner show you before and after photographs of their work? If they can only show you photos from glossy manufacturers leaflets then be wary.
• Can the practitioner supply testimonials of their work from other clients? Or are there existing clients sitting in the waiting room who look confident in the practitioner.
• Can the practitioner show you evidence that they hold indemnity insurance for the treatments they cary out?
• Does the premises look fit for purpose? Is the procedure being carried out in a clinical environment? If not, you may be at a greater risk of post treatment infection.
• Have you received a thorough medical consultation prior to treatment? Has the practitioner explained the side effects and adverse reaction than can and do occur.
• Have you been offered a cooling off period between consultation and treatment or is the practitioner trying to talk you in to having a treatment there and then.
• Have you been offered a written set of after-care instructions prior to treatment?
• Have you been offered a follow-up appointment to assess the results of your treatment?
• Do not be afraid of changing your mind about going ahead with treatment, even if the practitioner is holding the syringe in their hand. You are entitled to refuse your Consent to treatment at any point during the treatment session.

It is your face and if you are not 100% confident that you are being treated by the right practitioner, then walk away. 

Further information on this topic can be found on the NHS Choices Website.

 

 

 

Most of us love to feel the sun on our skin – and we can tend to go a bit crazy when the sun finally graces our shores. While we may remember to slap on the sunscreen when the sun is blazing, many people don’t realise that it should be worn 365 days a year. Skin cancer is caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, so even on a cloudy day we need to protect our skin from UV radiation.

The use of a daily broad spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30+ has been clinically proven to prevent skin cancer and premature ageing of the skin. Anything with a SPF of less than 15 is useless, as these moisturisers will not protect from UVA rays, which can penetrate through 4 inches of glass.

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Collagen creams have been around for decades. At the first glance, they seem useful. After all, the skin is made of collagen; so if you put on a cream with collagen, the skin should absorb it and thereby improve. This does not work. Let me give you an analogy. Imagine you live in a brick house and your neighbour is throwing bricks at it. Will your walls become stronger or smoother? Of course not: those bricks will simply lay scattered on the ground. The same happens when you apply a collagen cream. Collagen is a large molecule, it does not penetrate the skin but stays idly on top of it, only to be washed off during your next shower. Traditional collagen creams are not entirely useless because collagen can hold moisture and makes a decent moisturiser. But do not expect these creams to strengthen your skin.
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