Medical spas have been a growing trend over the past decade. It combines something we enjoy with something we trust. Spas have been a part of womanhood for many years and to now be able to attend a spa in a medical office makes it seem more safe and official…right? We couldn’t be anymore wrong. Medical spas offer the same treatments you can find at the dermatologists office with a mixture of spa treatments. You have the option of getting a massage, a facial, microdermabrasion and even Botox. Laser hair removal, cellulite removal and spider vein removal. You can even get plastic surgery here – it seems to be the one-stop place for every beauty need you could possible want, so what’s the problem?

There have been some women who have experienced irreversible and harmless consequences as a result to attending a medical spa. For instance, there was this one woman who agreed to have laser hair removal on her legs – she ended up leaving with second degree burns. She came to find out that the person who performed the procedure on her was a cosmetologist and the “medical” office was actually associated with a dental office. There was another woman, a college student, who rubbed a numbing gel on herself to prepare for the hair removal procedure – she ended up entering into a coma and dying eight days later. This isn’t very common, but what are common is seared flesh, droopy eyelids and lumpy lips.

The first medical spa was founded by Dermatologist Bruce Katz in 1999. Since then, there have been between 2,000 and 2,500 medical spas opened. The issue associated with medi-spas is that they lack the medi-cal part. The faculties take of the spa part of the equation, but lack the expertise to deal with aesthetics and the other medical procedures.

Now this isn’t to scare you away from medical spas, it is to warn you about the truths that lurk within some of them. Just because you see credentials hanging on the wall and the woman/man is wearing a white lab coat doesn’t make them an expert to perform a medical procedure. It is important that you check out the medical spa before you pay to have any procedures done in their labs. Ask for a license number to check with the board of your state. Every state has different regulations, so for someone to be able to practice in this state may be very different (and dangerous) in this state.