Evaluating Public Perceptions of Cosmetic Procedures in the Medical Spa and Physician's Office Settings: A Large-scale Survey

BACKGROUND Medical spa and cosmetic procedure markets have grown substantially in recent years. The lack of consistent medical oversight at medical spas raises safety concerns. OBJECTIVE To understand how the public views medical spas compared with physician's offices as places to receive cosmetic procedures with a focus on safety. METHODS 1,108 people were surveyed on an internet platform about their perceptions of the safety of receiving cosmetic procedures at medical spas and physician's offices. Respondents were grouped by their past experiences. Chi-squared and analysis of variance models were used to determine statistically significant differences between groups at the 0.05 level. RESULTS Respondents who had only received cosmetic procedures at physician's offices or had never received a cosmetic procedure cared more about being treated by a physician ( p < .001) and rated safety as more important ( p = .03). Total complication rates were numerically higher at medical spas compared with physician's offices ( p = .41). Minimally invasive skin tightening (0.77 vs 0.0, p < .001) and nonsurgical fat reduction (0.80 vs 0.36, p = .04) had higher complication rates at medical spas. CONCLUSION There were concerns among the public about the safety of cosmetic procedures at medical spas, and some procedures demonstrated higher complication rates in this setting.