You’ve certainly seen many offers: a certain number of sessions, an all-inclusive package price and brighter looking skin promised. Initially, getting a whitening injection package can be as easy as booking a facial. Choose a package, attend your scheduled appointments, and patiently wait for the results. But injections are not your everyday skincare products. They inject stuff into your body. A package deal doesn’t tell you if a treatment is suitable, effective, or safe.
Here are a few questions to ask before signing up to whitening injections. You don’t need medical knowledge for any of them, but the responses can make a huge difference to your decision.
What Am I Actually Trying to Change?
“Brighter skin” can mean several different things. You may want to fade acne marks, diminish persistent tanning, treat melasma, or just achieve an even-toned appearance. Those concerns have varying origins. When inflammation occurs, acne marks usually form. Sun exposure and hormones have an impact on melasma. Discoloration can also be caused by irritation, medications, or a skin disorder.
Your skin’s history is important, and a clinic will want to know it before giving you whitening injections. They may ask you questions like:
How long before the discoloration started?
Do certain areas appear to be more effected than others?
What products or treatments have you already tried?
If you are more concerned about a few dark spots, it is probably more appropriate to consider a spot-on treatment rather than an injection that is formulated to lighten the whole face. This could involve prescription skincare, a skin examination, or other treatments recommended by a dermatologist. Remember, a consultation is not simply about determining what a package you’ll be able to purchase; it’s about finding out what problem needs treating.
What’s Actually Inside the Package?
Two clinics can promote whitening injections for different ingredients, doses, appointment times and administration techniques. Glutathione is often promoted as a skin conditioning agent, possibly mixed with Vitamin C or other ingredients. However, the term is not enough to indicate the quantity of ingredient being injected or if the formulation has undergone sufficient testing for cosmetic application.
Therefore, you must request specific ingredients, amounts, manufacturer of product and method of delivery. Ask if the clinic will use a qualified, licensed clinician to administer the treatment and how the clinic keeps its tools sterile. Inquire if the product is approved for the particular cosmetic use being promoted.
What Do I Need to Know About Results?
“Two shades lighter in six sessions” sounds wonderfully specific. However, what is meant by “two shades,” and how could it be accurately measured? The number of sessions, the time period and the dose that reliably create predictable changes in skin tone is not well established. This is particularly important if a “whitening injection package” is being sold with “before and after” guarantees. This includes asking the question, “What results have been proven, what if there are none, and if there are any, why can the clinic tell you?” Photos may be used to show progress, but varying lighting, make up and camera settings may make comparisons inaccurate. A responsible dermatologist will be able to talk to you about uncertainty without a sense of urgency. After all, giving the same answer to all the questions doesn’t help you learn anything about the treatment.
Will Anyone Check Whether It’s Suitable for Me?
A good consultation does more than an examination of your face. An experienced dermatologist should ask about health conditions, prior reactions to injection, medications, and allergies before heading to the next step of treatment. Also, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and kidney or liver issues need to be covered. There are risks associated with injections and IV infusions such as allergic reactions, infection, and infusion-related complications due to the ingredients or how it is given.
You must ask about who will attend to a reaction if it should happen, and what symptoms would need to be treated promptly, and if there are adequate medical supervision and emergency procedures in place. Remember, there is no such thing as being too early or too late to ask them. When it comes to treatments, it’s best to pay closer attention than to a new serum or moisturizer!