There's a lot of information out there about cosmetic procedures — what they involve, how long recovery takes, what results to expect. What gets far less airtime is the emotional side, and some of the risks that catch people off guard have nothing to do with the physical result. Read on to learn more about what you need to know before getting a cosmetic procedure and why the emotional side is so important.

I spent two years trying to improve patient mental health safeguarding in aesthetic medicine. What I actually learned was how an industry protects itself from the very changes it claims to want.

Cosmetic patients are warned about scarring, swelling and allergic reactions. Why are the psychological risks of cosmetic procedures still left out of consent? BDD is estimated to affect somewhere between 19% and 24% of cosmetic surgery patients. That is roughly one in five. It is associated with poor satisfaction after treatment and poor psychological outcomes. It is not a remote possibility to be noted in passing.

The medical aesthetics industry has spent years talking about the need to identify unsuitable patients. On paper, that sounds sensible. If a big part of the risk sits in patient motivation, expectations, or appearance-related distress, then screening for those issues can seem like the obvious answer. However, that logic falls apart when it meets the real conditions of cosmetic care.

What’s happening right now in the aesthetics industry around Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) awareness isn’t progress. It’s performance. People are chasing titles, panels and hashtags about “psychological safety” without understanding the first thing about it. Performative “safeguarding” and spreading misinformation does more harm than doing nothing.

The PREPÆRE™ Patient Hub is a free resource aesthetic practitioners can refer patients to at any time. One of the most important parts of ethical aesthetic care is knowing when not to treat. Sometimes, a patient’s expectations may be unrealistic. Other times, they may have had too much work already. In some cases, something just feels off. But what happens after you say no ? Too often, the answer is nothing. There is no guidance, no follow-up, just a polite rejection. While t

Since July 2023, Australia has introduced some of the strictest rules in the world around psychological screening in aesthetics. The goal is well-intentioned: to safeguard patients, especially those vulnerable to mental health challenges like Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). But while the policy sounds protective on paper, the reality is much more complex.

A few years back, I would have been the patient of your nightmares. The one who seems normal enough—pleasant, even—