Cosmetic interventions

About our Cosmetic interventions guidance

How this guidance applies to you

This guidance, which forms part of the professional standards, is for all doctors, physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) who offer cosmetic interventions.

The standards of good practice apply to doctors, PAs and AAs (collectively referred to as medical professionals and whom we address directly as ‘you’ throughout the guidance). As with all our professional standards, this guidance applies to all our registrants to the extent it is relevant to the individual’s practice.

The cosmetic sector is a rapidly expanding area of practice that has gone from being a niche market to a popular service that is now widely available. Cosmetic interventions can have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of patients. There have been particular concerns about patient safety and whether the sector operates in an ethical manner. It is important that medical professionals have the right skills, the products used are safe, and patients get accurate information before they decide to have a cosmetic intervention. This guidance sets out a framework for practice to address these concerns.

By cosmetic interventions we mean any intervention, procedure or treatment carried out with the primary objective of changing an aspect of a patient’s physical appearance. This includes surgical and non-surgical procedures, both invasive and non-invasive.

The key aims of this guidance are to make sure that doctors, PAs and AAs:

are appropriately trained and experienced to practise safely
work with each individual patient to make sure their expectations about the outcomes that can be achieved for them are realistic
follow current guidelines or protocols for safe, effective provision of cosmetic interventions
consider the psychological needs of their patients
do not allow any financial or commercial interests in a particular intervention, or an organisation providing cosmetic interventions, to adversely affect standards of good patient care.

This guidance does not apply to interventions that amount to female genital mutilation (FGM), which is illegal in the UK. If you are not sure whether a particular cosmetic intervention falls within the legal definition of FGM¹ then you must seek advice, eg from your defence organisation or your employer’s legal department.

Using this guidance

This guidance incorporates principles from our existing guidance, and is structured under the four domains of Good medical practice. In some cases, it sets a higher standard than in our other guidance to address the specific safety issues and ethical concerns particular to the cosmetic sector, as recommended by Sir Bruce Keogh’s Review of the regulation of cosmetic interventions.² You must read this guidance alongside our other guidance³ for a full understanding of the expected standards of practice.

Throughout this document we’ve highlighted certain paragraphs of our other guidance, which you must read to get the full picture. You can also find these extracts in the links on the right hand side.

Throughout this guidance, we use the terms ‘you must’ and ‘you should’ in the following ways.

‘You must’ is used for a legal or ethical duty you’re expected to meet (or be able to justify why you didn’t).
'You should’ is used for duties or principles that either:
- may not apply to you or to the situation you’re currently in, or
- you may not be able to comply with because of factors outside your control.

As with all our professional standards, the guidance applies to all our registrants to the extent that it is relevant to the individual’s practice.

The professional standards describe good practice, and not every departure from them will be considered serious. You must use your professional judgement to apply the standards to your day-to-day practice. If you do this, act in good faith and in the interests of patients, you will be able to explain and justify your decisions and actions. We say more about professional judgement, and how the professional standards relate to our fitness to practise processes, appraisal and revalidation, at the beginning of Good medical practice.

Other sources of guidance

A number of organisations, including the Royal College of Surgeons, have produced guidance on the professional standards, skills and experience needed to carry out cosmetic interventions.

The Committee of Advertising Practice has developed guidance on the advertising and marketing of cosmetic interventions. We have included references and links to these other sources of guidance, which complement our guidance for medical professionals.