France declares an official war on the gray zone of the beauty market. No more buying hyaluronic acid without a prescription. This solution can be of significant help to the French, as they do not even know the concept of prescription on demand. In Poland the matter is more complicated.
Hyaluronic acid is a relatively safe substance that revolutionized aesthetic medicine in its time. However, in the wrong hands it can cause serious harm, especially when we do not know the source of the preparation, actual composition, method of storage, etc.
The whole of Europe has this problem, not only with hyaluronic acid, but generally with treatments that are supposed to “improve beauty” and lead to disfigurement, systemic diseases, permanent disability and even death.
After the “beauty tourism” trend, it's time for local self-proclaimed “specialists”. The French have said enough. Dr. Małgorzata Marcinkiewicz, dermatologist-venereologist, aesthetic medicine doctor, tells us what it is like in Poland.
Hyaluronic acid and Polish realities
Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a popular cosmetic ingredient. In the form of an injection, it is used to fill wrinkles and add volume to the lips or cheeks.
French health authorities have tightened safety measures regarding hyaluronic acid as injections were increasingly carried out by unauthorized people. Now you will need a prescription to buy the injection.
In France, this largely solves the issue, because generally the regulations regarding aesthetic medicine are precise, ensuring the safety of patients and providing for specific sanctions for fraudulent procedures.
Here we have a free American society, no clear regulations and apparent moves that are supposed to organize the market. Supposedly as part of popularizing the fashion for natural beauty, we do not consider aesthetic medicine as medicine and its advertising is significantly limited. However, education is limited, we are not aware of the threats and Polish bodies increasingly fall into the wrong hands.
– Introducing hyaluronic acid only on prescription is certainly a big step towards regulating the aesthetic medicine market, so I am glad that the French authorities have taken it. The problem of the gray market in the beauty market is only growing, so I hope that all of Europe will follow France's example. However, there is more to do, including: a ban on the import of uncertified preparations mainly from Asia, which can be purchased online and anyone can buy them, regardless of whether they are a doctor or a carpenter – says Małgorzata Marcinkiewicz, M.D., specialist in dermatology and venereology, doctor of aesthetic medicine
Aesthetic medicine treatments – money is not everything
As Dr. Marcinkiewicz emphasizes, medical circles in Poland have been trying for years to sanction the status of aesthetic medicine treatments to ensure the safety of patients who are often unaware of the risks. They are mainly guided by low prices, which result from cheap, uncertified products:
– Often we don't even know what has been served and where it comes from. When a patient goes to a doctor for help, “for corrections”, it is difficult to dissolve and remove such a preparation in order to limit its negative impact on the body – emphasizes the specialist.
Patients come to doctors' offices with complications that are difficult and long-lasting to treat, such as skin necrosis, blindness, superinfections, ulcerations, recurrent swelling, and allergies.
Very often, the initially assumed aesthetic effects are questionable. One of the most common problems is placing the implant in the wrong place.
– Recently, a lady visited me after having her lips filled. When she gave me the name of the office where she had the procedure done, it turned out that there was no doctor there – says Dr. Marcinkiewicz.
Aesthetic medicine – knowledge from social media and courses
It seems there is no advertising, but in reality there is no control over it.
– Patients are sometimes deceived by the so-called the Instagram effect: where “after” photos on the profiles of these offices are presented from one, better, angle. The unresolved problem will only deepen as we face an irreconcilable gap between the two worlds. Non-medical environments are motivated by income and quick profit, and doctors train for years – says the expert and adds:
– We conduct scientific research to better understand the effects of preparations in tissue on the aging process. The non-medical industry will never have the same preparation.
Doctor Marcinkiewicz also draws attention to the questionable level of training and courses boasted by “specialists” without medical studies and with “certificates” from institutions unknown to anyone. And yet, for many patients, this is enough to not only give themselves an injection, but even go under the knife:
– After all, no one would have their appendix operated on by a person who is not a surgeon, and yet some people entrust the most visible part of our body, i.e. the face, to people without medical education – sums up Małgorzata Marcinkiewicz, M.D., Ph.D.
Specialist dermatologist and venereologist, doctor of aesthetic medicine.
She gained clinical experience, among others: at the Department of Dermatology and Venereology of the Medical University of Warsaw and in numerous dermatological facilities and aesthetic medicine clinics. She cooperated with the Dermatological Clinic of the University of Christian Albrecht in Kiel as part of the prestigious Otto Braun-Falco Scholarship.
He is a member of the Polish Society of Dermatology and Venereology. He specializes in the treatment of dermatological diseases, especially acne and its complications, and videodermoscopic assessment of skin lesions. Her passion has long been aesthetic medicine, because as she says: “who knows the skin better than a dermatologist.”