According to the Cosmetic Physicians College of Australasia (CPCA), Australians spend over $1 billion on cosmetic procedures every year.
These figures only account for non-surgical treatments such as injectables, sculpting, and laser treatments.
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Approximately 10 per cent of Australians have admitted to undergoing some form of cosmetic treatment.
However, a major shake-up of the cosmetic industry will be implemented from July 1, potentially affecting a large number of people.
On today’s episode of The Briefing, we talked to Dr David Morgan, a specialist plastic surgeon and member of the Government Advisory Board, to find out the new guidelines and their potential impact on individuals seeking cosmetic enhancements.
The new guidelines introduce changes for both practitioners and advertisers in the cosmetic surgery industry.
We have to be very careful about how we describe our services in our practice, in our care. We can’t use things like world-leading or world-renowned,”
Dr Morgan said.
You can’t use stock photos on your websites anymore because it could be implied that those models are patients of that practice and that their wonderful look is due to the services from that practice,”
he said.
Dr Morgan said before-and-after photos should be consistent in lighting and clothing, and advertising materials must include the doctor’s full title, registration type, and registration number.
Other changes include requiring patients seeking cosmetic surgery to obtain a referral from their general practitioner (GP), which was not previously mandatory.
Patients undergoing cosmetic surgery must be screened for body dysmorphic disorder, a mental illness that distorts body image perception.
This sort of intervention has long been part of plastic surgery training, but we’re certainly not trained psychologists or psychiatrists, where if you do detect these worrisome conditions, that’s the sort of treatment that they need.”
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