There should be a Europe-wide ban on the advertising of all cosmetic surgical procedures, the president of the European Association of Societies of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery has demanded.
Mr Nigel Mercer, consultant plastic surgeon, says mounting public expectation, media hype and professional greed are creating a “perfect storm” around the cosmetic surgery market and measures need to be taken now to prevent it.
He says: “It is paramount that every person, organisation and regulator involved in the cosmetic surgery industry strenuously protects the patient. If we do not do that there will be a backlash, just as there has been in the banking industry.
“This is not protectionism but common sense. The world needs bankers more than cosmetic surgeons.”
He believes many doctors involved in cosmetic surgery are putting their own financial interests a head of the duty to protect their patients. Mercer, writing in the journal Clinical Risk, and who is also the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, says: “We are now seeing a generation of surgeons who want to train purely to perform cosmetic surgery, rather than being attracted to performing reconstructive surgery.”
He continues: “If we have to sell anything, we should sell our advice, not procedures. If we cannot self-regulate, then, like the financial institutions, regulation will eventually be imposed.”
Mercer criticises aggressive marketing techniques, such as two-for-one offers and surgical holidays.
He says: “In no other area of medicine is there such an unregulated mess. What is worse is that national governments would not allow it to happen in other areas of medicine. Imagine a ‘two-for-one’ advert for general surgery?”
The media is complicit giving “the public the impression that cosmetic surgery procedures are quick fixes and carry no risk of downtime or complications. Nothing could be further from the truth and it defies common sense to think otherwise.”
Clinical effectiveness, or lack of it, is a problem and he warns that the industry should not sell procedures directly to patients. He cites the example ‘dermal filler’.
“In the US, there are only a handful of fillers with FDA approval, whereas in the UK there are over 100 on the market. Why the difference?
“In the US, the products undergo testing as a ‘drug’, but in the UK they are tested as a ‘device’ and so only have to pass ‘CE’ mark requirements, which relate to standards of production, not of efficacy. Drug testing is lengthy and expensive but CE marking is not. That is why substances can be injected, which are perfectly legal, but do not need to be licensed for efficacy or safety.”
Europe should adopt FDA-like testing for implantable devices, and seek to control the advertising of products, even online.
He calls for all providers of care involved must be subject to regular inspection and revalidation. And for the development of an insurance product which would cover the patient for complications.
Mercer concludes by calling for cosmetic surgeons to behave responsibly, with integrity and probity.