filler training for doctors Archives

Are you a doctor considering a career move into facial aesthetics? Since 2002 we have trained and mentored thousands of doctors, allowing them to establish a successful career in medical aesthetics. An example of this is Dr Kalpna Pindolia, who recently attended a Refresher Botox and Dermal Filler training course with the team here at Cosmetic Courses and has now set up her clinic; Envisage Aesthetics.

Read on as Kalpna discusses her journey into aesthetics and offers some advice if you’re a doctor considering this type of career move.

What is your background?

I am a registered Doctor working in Emergency Medicine. Alongside this I am now a mobile Aesthetic Doctor for my own clinic; Envisage Aesthetics.

Why did you decide to move into facial aesthetics?

My main aim was to have a better work-life balance and I have always wanted to establish and maintain my own independent business. I knew facial aesthetics would provide me with both of these things.

Why did you decide to train with Cosmetic Courses?

They had glowing testimonials and the personal interactions with their caring team were amazing. They offer high quality training with experienced practitioners within the context of ongoing support with your career progression. It was excellent value for money.

How did you find your training experience?

My training with Cosmetic Courses was simply excellent. I had an experienced and approachable practitioner, in a dedicated clinic environment, with models provided by Cosmetic Courses for clinical practice.

What do you enjoy most about your aesthetic work?

One area of my aesthetic work that I enjoy is practising high standards of communication in a privately-led environment for the process of informed consent. This, as well as the artistry involved which complements the clinical skills required for the process of getting achievable results. I also like establishing effective professional relationships with clients in the long term in order to address their needs over time.

What would you say to other doctors thinking about training in aesthetics?

Training in Botox and Dermal Fillers is a fantastic opportunity to achieve a work-life balance whilst still using your clinical expertise – including communication skills, practical techniques and running your own business. It is not an easy option, but very rewarding if you are willing to put in the time, effort and enthusiasm.

Aesthetic Training for Doctors

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in medical aesthetics or simply want to find out more information on our Botox and dermal filler training courses, please feel free to contact our course co-ordinators who would be more than happy to assist you.

Pain relief using local anaesthetic for dermal filler injections

Dermal filler injections are more uncomfortable for the patient than other treatments such as BOTOX® treatment.

This depends on the area treated, with the lips in particular being very uncomfortable because of their denser nerve endings in this area. Many patients are deterred from having dermal filler injections into their lips because of the discomfort of the procedure.

Traditionally, practitioners have used dental blocks blocking the infra-orbital and mental nerves in a similar fashion to that used for the dentist for dental treatment.

While this type of local anaesthetic is very effective at reducing discomfort from the lips during injections, making it almost completely pain free, it has the disadvantage that the local anaesthetic can also affect the muscle tone of the lips.
By reducing the muscle tone they decrease your patient’s ability to contract the muscle and produce the lines which you aim to treat.

At Cosmetic Courses we always advise our trainees to first of all mark the lines they wish to treat prior to inserting the dental blocks so that the landmarks are retained.

Although the marking technique does give indication as to the areas that require volume adjustment, due to a decreased subcutaneous tissue it is not as accurate as seeing the areas for yourself with the muscles contracted which is often not possible with dental blocks.

Whilst EMLA and other topical anaesthetics such as Ametop offer some pain relief this is not complete and, even if these are used, dermal fillers are uncomfortable.

With Juvederm®, the Allergan company introduced a product with local anaesthetic combined with the hyaluronic acid.
This has significant advantages in that, although the first injection is of normal tenderness, the local anaesthetic does permeate through the area and each subsequent injection becomes less painful.

We have found that, if dermal fillers which contain lignocaine are used correctly, the discomfort from dermal filler injections (even in the lips) is significantly reduced and is very tolerable for most of our patients.

Our current preference is to use a dermal filler containing local anaesthetics in the peri-oral area as this has the dual advantage of producing good pain relief for the patient and also preserving the muscle activity allowing you to accurately place the dermal fillers in the correct position.

If you would like to know more about these techniques with dermal fillers to reduce the discomfort for your patients please contact the Cosmetic Courses office on 08452 304 110 or via email at [email protected] to discuss your training needs.