In recent years, the landscape of cosmetic medicine in Australia has changed dramatically, shaped by the updated guidelines and regulations set forth by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). These changes have directly impacted how clinics, including Dr. Face, can advertise their products and services.
As a doctor-led aesthetics clinic in Melbourne, we take our responsibilities to you seriously. It’s your face, and our responsibility is to be open, honest, genuinely expert and easy to communicate with as we help you achieve your best results. We adhere to all regulations ensuring that our marketing practices are ethical, compliant, and in the best interest of our patients.
In this article, we will explore these recent regulatory changes, how they affect our clinic, and what they mean for both practitioners and patients in this evolving field of aesthetic medicine.
A New Era of Cosmetic Injectables: Stricter Regulations in Advertising
The world of cosmetic injectables is undergoing a significant transformation. The TGA recently announced tightened restrictions that redefine how businesses in this sector can promote their services. Long-standing terms commonly used words in advertising and in website content, such as “anti-wrinkle injections” and “dermal fillers,” are now off-limits. Please refer to the TGA media release: Referring to cosmetic injectables in advertising, if you’d like to see for yourself.
This means that clinics like ours need to refine our approach to marketing and our website, one that complies with these stringent guidelines while still effectively communicating the services we provide.
Understanding the AHPRA and TGA Guidelines
The AHPRA and TGA aim to protect the public by setting standards for advertising and communication in healthcare. This includes expectations on how prescription-only items can be discussed and marketed. For instance, phrases such as “wrinkle relaxers,” “fillers,” and “injectables” are not permitted in advertising to the general public. Clinics must now navigate this new landscape with caution, ensuring that all communication remains compliant with the guidelines.
The TGA has established guidelines for advertising and website content. While these restrictions may seem challenging, they are designed to direct appropriate prescribing by doctors in consultation with their patient – a principle wholeheartedly embraced at Dr.Face.
How Our Aesthetics Clinic is Adapting to the New Advertising Landscape
For aesthetics clinics, these changes mean a significant shift in how we communicate with our patients and market our services. Under the tightened TGA guidelines, even indirect references to prescription medicines, such as “anti-wrinkle injections” “dermal fillers” and “fat-dissolving injections” are not permitted. This requires clinics to think more carefully about the language they can use legally.
Social media is also affected. It’s not lawful under the guidelines to publish testimonials, before-and-after images, or pricing details. As many clinics utilised these types of posts for marketing, they will find it difficult to change to compliant social media posting.
Maintaining Patient Trust in a Compliant Environment
These changes do not affect the legality of clinics providing cosmetic injectables or other aesthetic treatments. These treatments were always prescription medicines and still are, and are able to be used for treatments by doctors writing legal prescriptions for their use.
All the services medical aesthetic clinics offered before the new rules are still available, as long as a legal prescription has been used.
Our commitment to transparency, patient safety, and ethical practices remains unwavering.
For our existing patients and those considering using our services, we will continue to provide the same expert level of care. By adhering to these guidelines, we demonstrate our dedication to patient safety, education and responsible advertising practices.
Helping You Make Informed Decisions
At Dr. Face, we are committed to providing our patients with all the information they need to make informed decisions. We believe that these changes strengthen our mission to offer ethical, responsible, and expert cosmetic treatments. By ensuring compliance with AHPRA and TGA regulations, our aesthetics doctors and staff uphold our responsibility to protect our patients’ well-being while delivering exceptional care.
By staying informed and committed to best practices, we can continue to offer the highest quality of care while navigating the evolving regulatory landscape of aesthetic medicine together.
We are here to guide you through the options available and help you find the best treatments to meet your health and aesthetic goals in a safe, ethical, and responsible manner. For more information on the product and services offered at our doctor-led clinic, contact us today.
