BODY & SOUL
It's hard to call the concept of medical spas anything but "hot." The fastest-growing area in the US spa market, between 2002 and 2004, medical spas doubled in number to more than 400. Medspas are often initiated by doctors — plastic surgeons, dermatologists at first, and more recently, family doctors, internists, even emergency room doctors, says Eric Light, president of the International Medical Spa Association and the Strawberry Hill Group, a Maineville, Ohio-based international spa development consulting firm. Now business people are looking at them as a hot venture, too, he adds. "We're seeing two things come together — a population more and more interested in taking care of themselves, particularly their skin and their bodies," Light says. "At the same time, we've been seeing doctors frustrated with the current health care system. They've been losing money in many cases, so they needed another source of income." What Atlanta's medspas have in common with traditional spas are soft colors and lighting, gentle music and trickling water. What they are adding to the relaxing spa setting includes prescription-only non-invasive skin and anti-celluloid treatments and cosmetic procedures such as Botox injections, laser hair removal and microdermabrasion — a peel that massages crystals into the face to remove superficial skin levels., reducing the appearance of scarring, wrinkles, acne and uneven or sun-damaged skin. The key thing to remember is that these treatments are still "medical," Light says. All medspas should have a medical director who is a board-certified doctor. While some procedures can be performed by aestheticisms, you should always ask about their training and experience, too. Light cautions: "If somebody doesn't recognize a melanoma and does a laser treatment, they can actually take away the discoloration on the skin that indicates the melanoma, but it's still there." A well-trained and experienced practitioner also ensures you receive safe concentrations of acids, such as glycolic or salicylic, and Botox, which, although trendy, is just a low dose of botulinum toxin, the bacterium that causes |
