At Cosmetica Training we pride ourselves in offering the most practical experience than any other course currently offered by another training company. With Botox training the only way you can become competent is by having hands on practice.  Can you realistically be competent after injecting just one person with Botulinum toxin type A?  We believe that you cannot, yet courses that only allow their delegates to inject one model seem to be highly sought after.

Traditionally, Botox courses are ran by undertaking the theory during the morning and the practical session only commences in the afternoon.  Some courses being offered allow only 2 hours of injection training throughout the day, others allow for 4 hours of practical, however, these 4 hours are often shared with 10 – 15 other delegates.  

To change the way aesthetic courses are run we introduced e-learning, this enables you to spend a minimum of 2 weeks studying the theory, which we provide to you in written format and on a DVD.  During this time you get full tutor support and any queries you have are answered within 24 hours of your e-mail being sent to us.  On your practical training day you benefit from 7 hours of practical administration.  At the end of your Botox course you will be fully competent and be able to set up a clinic offering aesthetic treatments.

Attendance of a Botox training course ran by Cosmetica guarantees that you will be completely satisfied with the experience you have with us that we have a satisfaction guarantee.  If you feel that you are not fully competent with your injection technique, tell us before you leave and we will invite you back for a further practical session.

Full aftercare packages are available to all our delegates upon successful completion of our courses to range from e-mail support to full clinic visits to assist in setting up and running your first sessions.

When you train with Cosmetica we can put into place everything to help you to succeed.

The media love to cover how celebrities are having fillers, botox and face lifts trying to highlight when possible where it has “gone wrong”.  Photographs of unnatural looking lips, swollen faces and tell tale bruising are adorned across the pages of gossip magazines, sometimes suggesting that natural is better.  However, they also imply that we should try to achieve perfection; that we, as men and women of today, should aspire to have flawless skin, a radiant smile and look forever youthful.  They portray that no matter what age, people should always look younger and try to prevent the ageing process.

In a ‘news’ page of a weekly magazine, two well known age defying stars, were featured looking less taut than they normally do. Said celebrities, both around the 50 year age mark, are known for holding back the tell tale signs of their age, are more often than not, are praised for their youthful appearance. They will not deny any rumours of cosmetic surgery or beauty enhancing treatments, but  unfortunately, they are also subjected to criticisms stating that they should focus less on maintaining their young looks. Nevertheless, when these stars go out without makeup on, with faint wrinkles in view, they become a theme of gossip.  A 50 year old non-celeb is free to walk around au naturale and be free of judgemental  glances, but the famous are criticized for their lines, that are often the result of genetics.

Over time, as the media and entertainment world increases in size, A Listers have become one of the main topics of conversation in our everyday life.  Everywhere we look, there are magazines that feature celebrities on the covers. But more often than not, the cover stories are based on their appearance. Why is it that our society today appears to care more for how actors look then the films they appear in? If it was not for their talent, we would not be aware of these icons, so why do we choose to discuss their looks, and more specifically their ageing?

As many of you are aware we have been making vast changes to our new training centre where we will be offering botox courses from a clinical environment on a full time basis in the heart of Liverpool.  Our new location has previous links to the world famous band the Beatles, is a short distance from Penny Lane and less than 2 miles from the end of the M62 motorway making us highly accessible from any location within the UK.

In conjunction with our new aesthetic and  botox training course location we are offering huge savings off the normal price of our courses.  Why not take advantage of our 30% off discount, enabling you to train in both dermal fillers and  at a cost of just £695, a saving of £300 .  Spaces are limited and the offer is only valid for bookings received until the end of July

We are only able to offer dermal filler and Botox courses to those with a medical qualification, namely Doctors, Dentists, Nurses and Paramedics in. Each application will be checked with their governing body before acceptance onto any of our courses.

The first training date to take place at our new training centre will be Saturday 23rd July and we have 26 models booked in for treatment of 33 indications. If you meet our acceptance criteria why not book a place on line now or call us on 0845 467 7732 from Friday 1st July when we can gain access to our offices again?  This week continues to see our entire first floor and stairwell being fitted with clinical grade wood fx flooring which will limit our access to the second floor on Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th June.

In celebration of the opening of Cosmetica’s new training centre, we are pleased to announce a 30% reduction of the cost of our botox and dermal filler training course.  This discount will be applied to the combined course that takes place in July 2011. Normally priced at £995, all delegates can access this course for just £695.  The course covers the theory of both dermal fillers and botulinum toxin and gives each delegate a full day of practical training in the administration of these treatments.  Unlike courses provided by other training companies who only allow you to inject one model, our ethos allows  you to experience practical administration from 10.00 am through to 5.30 pm.

You will learn how to treat the 3 basic areas, glabella, forehead and crow’s feet with botulinum toxin type A, you will also learn how to use dermal fillers to treat naso-labial, glabella, marionettes, oral commissures, peri oral lines and vermillion border of the lips.  Indications are all subject to model requests. Our new training centre features a dedicated theory room and a double practical training room fully equiped to replicate a true clinical environment.  The site benefits from close rail and motorway networks with free parking in the local area. For any delegates travelling who wish to stay overnight we can arrange this for you providing the request is made at the time of booking.

We are also offering a special introductory price of our new local nerve infiltration and lip augmentation course to introduce our new tutor Dr Paul Rose a highly experienced GP and oral Dental Surgeon.  You will learn how to safely administer local anaesthesia for soft tissue augmentation of the vermillion border, lip body and philtrim ridges.

To book a place contact us on 0845 467 7732 or vomplete the online booking form with secure payment page provided by Streamline, one of the largest payment gateway providers in the UK.

After a week in the hands of our builders the new layout of our training centre is now complete with a brand new treatment room for our Intensive Pulse Light (IPL) treatments and a much improved reception area and classroom.

Tomorrow will see the first fix plumbing completed for wash basin in the main double treatment room as well as the decorators beginning the HUGE task of prepping all of the walls so that they can be undercoated before our flooring is fitted.  The guys have got 10 days so fingers crossed that we keep to our schedule.

On Saturday we ran our last e-learning combined botox and dermal filler training course until  the centre opens for business in July.  Our next course, on 23rd July will be the first course that we run from the training centre and to celebrate we will be announcing some exciting training news later on this week.

As ever increasing numbers of people train in Botox courses, calls to regulate the industry were heard throughout the UK.  The Government did not want to regulate however, gave the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) funds to create a self regulatory body.  The result, Treatments You Can Trust.

It was thought initially they would include standards for training providers and we have waited with baited breath for the arrival of such protocols.  Current companies have such diverse protocols, such as how many delegates are allowed on each course, the tutor to delegate ratio, the number of topics taught in one day, what qualifications they accept and how open they are to advising non prescribing delegates need to work prior to booking them onto a course.

On 6^th June the Treatments You Can Trust Governance Group are meeting to discuss the Training Principles that will apply to registration as a Botox Training provider.  Cosmetica were privileged to be able to view these principles of best training practice and were asked to provide comments as to the contents.  The Principles should be used in conjunction with the Standards for registration onto the Treatments You Can Trust register of injectors.

It is hoped that these Principles will standardise the way medical professionals are trained to ensure each new injector is exposed to the same high quality training which will hopefully lead to increased public safety with all injectors having the same practical experience and skills upon completion of their aesthetic training course.

Over the past week Cosmetica Training has received numerous telephone enquiries from “members of the public” wanting to undertake Botox training courses. They appear to have no qualifications relevant to being a medical professional, yet advise us they are ‘desperate to train’ and ask if there is a shortened route to applying for a Botox course? Cosmetica staff are available to answer queries but are now left wondering whether the latest influx in fake enquiries is related to an article that is about to published or the development of the training criteria for entry onto treatments you can trust website.

The first enquiry today fired questions at us regarding Botox training courses suggesting he asked insurance underwriters what the minimum requirements were, their response reportedly being NVQ 3. When we advised that we only train doctors, dentists and nurses the caller responded by saying he actually worked in an underwriter’s office and that was what he had been informed. We were then questioned on what a Level 3 degree is required to attend a Botox course, would a Geography course be acceptable? The misinformed caller or shall we call him questioner, then suggested he had heard dental hygienists could prescribe Botox and do not need to work with a Dentist. Degree courses nowadays are at level 6 and despite re-iterating numerous times who we train this did not deter the caller to continue to question us. One of the comments we found http://nygoodhealth.com/product/tramadol/ strange was that he apparently owned pubs and wanted to sell them to undertake a Botox training course; he must have forgotten he had previously informed us he worked within the insurance industry!

We were shocked to receive a further call a mere 20 minutes later from another “member of the public” again enquiring about how he can gain access to Botox training. Again he had no qualifications and was asking about whether you had to be a Doctor, Dentist or Nurse. Were there any other qualifications that were acceptable, say a dental hygienist or a beauty therapist? We advised him as we normally do after stating that this was the second call we had received within half an hour asking the same questions. This caller’s response was to state that there must obviously be a lot of the public who want confirmation of who can attend Botox courses. The telling sign that this enquiry was not genuine was the background news clearly heard of many other colleagues requesting similar information.

The last question from both enquiries was “Is there a shortened route to being able to attend a Botox course?” The reply simply was, “Botox is a prescription only medicine and can have very serious side effects, it is not possible to attend a 3 month long course and then be able to administer Botox, you need to be medically trained”.

For nurses who have or who are contemplating undertaking botox training and have not completed the V300 nurse independent and supplementary prescribing course, an understanding of how to obtain prescription only medicines (POM) such as BOTOX® and Azzalure® for your clients is important.

If you work within the same legal entity as a doctor, dentist or independent nurse prescriber, they can supply you with stock in advance.  If you are self employed and use a prescriber from another company, you are then not within the same legal entity and therefore cannot receive stock in advance.  In the case of wholesale stock, where the product has not been dispensed from a private prescription, VAT becomes payable on the POM, which will have to be factored into the cost to the patient.

If you are self employed the only way to receive a supply of botox is if it is prescribed on a named patient basis.  In this instance, the prescriber will need to undertake an assessment of the patient before the POM is dispensed by a pharmacy.  The law surrounding medicine dispensed on a prescription means that it can only be used on that particular patient, if you multi use the vial you are breaking the law. The only POM that can be multi used is wholesale stock. 

The same rules apply in hospital wards, during a drug round a nurse will administer medication that has been prescribed on a drug kardex or drug chart.  The nurse will take the medicine from the drugs trolley filled with containers that do not have a pharmacy dispensary label on it, this is wholesale stock, which can be dispensed to multiple patients.

If you have completed the independent nurse prescribing course and are self employed you cannot receive wholesale stock and need to write private prescriptions for each client you see.  If however, you work within the same legal entity as a doctor you can be supplied with and prescribe from stock accordingly.  This method of prescribing reduces product wastage as any prescribed botox that is not used for each patient needs to be discarded in an appropriate manner.

After the airing of BBC 3’s Botox Britain, the researcher contacted Cosmetica Training as they perceive us to be a reputable company who will work with them to provide information on important legislation within the industry.  Cosmetica always welcome the opportunity to assist in reliable, informative documentaries to allow information to be imparted to the public which will enable them to make an informed decision on who they go to for their botox injections.

Due to the time scale of the information that was required and the approach that the new documentary was taking, we were unable to assist and suggested alternative contacts.  The theme of the interview changed from “Botox gone wrong” to Nurses face being struck off the register for administering Botox.  The change was due to the apparent lack of coverage of this topic in light of new NMC changes.  We were pleased to inform the researcher that we have not seen any cases of Botox going wrong as our tutors are all highly experienced, all the delegates we train are all medically trained and during the practical sessions are all closely supervised to ensure their injection technique is undertaken safely and accurately.

The 5 Live interview featured a nurse who asked to remain anonymous stating that she had utilised remote prescribing and had to change her practice accordingly, although did not agree with the new NMC guidelines.  Also featured were Sally Taber from the government’s self regulatory body, IHAS and Dr Mark Harrison a remote consultation service provider.  Sally was in favour of the new guidelines and Dr Harrison opposed them, however stated that it will have an impact on his business.

Sally reported how the GMC are to release new guidelines also to clarify its position on remote consultations for botox treatments.  We can only assume currently that they will concur with NMC guidelines from the information Sally was giving.  We were astounded to hear that the nurse thought it was not as safe for a nurse prescriber to administer botox.  The university level V300 qualifications is intense and covers all aspects of law, pharmacology, takes 6 – 8 months to complete and has a pass requirement of 80% rather than the usual 40% pass rate.

Whilst Sally may not have chosen the most appropriate arguement in support of face to face consultations, to ascertain asthma, we agree that face to face consultations are more appropriate as you can see whether the patient has any muscular atrophy, undiagnosed dermatological conditions or infections in the area and will enable the prescriber to make an informed decision on what is the most appropriate dose for the nurse to inject.  It seems to be a little known fact that if the nurses tells the doctor what he/she is going to inject then the nurse is making an illegal prescribing decision.

Whilst the interview highlighted sensationalised concerns, it is true that if a nurse acts outside of NMC guidelines they do face disciplinary action which could include being struck off the register.  A nurses’ condition of registration is to ensure the safety of the public and to work within all the legal and NMC guidelines.

Cosmetica has written to the NMC asking 8 specific questions on non prescribing nurses who administer botox, we will publish their answers when they are received.

Botox injections are becoming more popular and are no longer seen as the treatment that only the stars can afford. With its increasing popularity, is there a sudden downfall in standards associated with this?

The first thing we saw was a rise in the number of Botox parties being offered, beauty therapists entering the industry, closely followed by mobile practitioners and mobile therapists offering treatments in the” comfort” of your own home. District nurses offer medical treatments to patients when necessary however, Botox treatments are a cosmetic medical procedure that seems to be seen as a treatment that does not require a clinical environment to healthy, mobile patients. With this association we are now increasingly seeing the presence of cheap Botox being illegally advertised along with a ridiculous pricing structure.  £40 per area on a voucher website, £75 an area in a barber shop in Liverpool, £200 for 3 areas in Manchester city centre all undertaken by practitioners who have trained to undertake this procedure. Cosmetica charge cost price of £40 for each area to models requesting treatment from delegates in a training environment, however, we do not intend to make a profit margin from these treatments and we would question the qualifications and experience of those offering cheap Botox treatments as part of a business venture.

With everything that is happening within the medical aesthetics industry we were intrigued to hear about a BBC documentary researching for a programme about Botox.  It was quite disturbing to see adverts appearing on forums asking for people aged 18 – 25 who have Botox. This is an age group that obviously do not need these treatments and we feared the route this programme would take would be one showing the industry in a bad light.

There was a young girl who had received poorly injected lip enhancement along with unnecessary Botox injections, a woman who lost her house after choosing to pay for treatments, a lady who had unfortunately encountered problems with permanent lip implants that we now know occur, a beauty therapist who shockingly injected her 15 year old step daughter with Botox and a presenter who sought the advice of a respected aesthetics doctor. The presenter decided to have some time with the doctor away from the cameras and emerged from the clinic room stating it was not a treatment that was for her at this time, yet she had rather suspicious swelling and erythema in an area that is frequently injected with Botox. Of course it is her prerogative to keep whether she had treatment confidentially or not.

It was very disappointing that the presenter chose to not explore the illegal nature of the beauty therapist. No sane prescriber, be it a doctor, dentist or nurse would prescribe Botox for a 15 year old child, so we can only assume that this therapist had Botox that had been prescribed for another patient and used this to treat her step daughter. This action is illegal as it is seen as theft. No consultation would have occurred so the therapist would have decided on the dose that again is illegal. She could face imprisonment or a large fine as making a prescribing decision when you are not legally allowed to is a criminal offence. The legislation regarding prescription only medicine is very clear. If you are not allowed to prescribe anything before undertaking Botox training then this will automatically be the case after completing a Botox course regardless of your initial qualifications. We have contacted the BBC to ascertain who this beauty therapist was, who her prescriber was and why they chose not to cover the illegal aspect of her decision-making. We have yet to hear from them although will update our blog accordingly.

The most pleasing aspect of this documentary was the section with Andy Pickett who highlighted the concerns of non authentic Botox and dermal fillers that are available to purchase over the internet.  Botox is a prescription only medicine and as such needs to be prescribed by a doctor, dentist or independent non medical nurse prescriber.  If such products can be purchased from a website claiming to be a pharmacy then they will not be authentic, sterile or safe products suitable for injection.

The same researchers are recording a further documentary being aired on BBC Radio 5 Live, so it will be interesting to see the course that is taken with this programme.