A helping hand into facial aesthetics

Dyan Williams, national sales manager at Med-fx, says hesitant dentists aren’t alone and explains the best way for them to incorporate facial aesthetics into their practice

It seems dentists are constantly being told that they need to offer their patients non-invasive facial aesthetic treatments. They’re told that it’s the new big thing, it’s a lucrative market and everyone else is doing it – so why not them?

But, what if you’re a dentist who doesn’t know where to start. Unsure of what time you will need to invest, how you will market it to patients – the list of questions goes on? In fact, most dentists don’t know how to integrate facial aesthetics into their practice – and that’s okay. Help is on hand.

Is it worth it?

From a commercial point of view, introducing facial aesthetics into the dental sector really does add up. Overall cosmetic treatments are estimated to be worth £913m in the UK, with 85% of revenue coming from facial aesthetics. Combine this with the fact that on average 50% of dental chair time is understood to be vacant and just one facial aesthetic patient treated a day a practice could boost revenue by upwards of £52,000 a year.

The only real investment dentists need to make to achieve profit margins of 80 to 90% is to commit to training, which is initially a one-day course, followed up by top up training – the cost of which can be typically redeemed by treating three facial aesthetics patients. There is also the investment in toxin or filler products, which have a trade cost of just pounds per unit, but a retail price of between £200 to £500 and any marketing costs.

It’s an incredibly lucrative market – that’s clear to dentists – but that’s rarely the reason they’re not offering the treatments. Instead, one of the first statements I often hear from dentists is, ‘I don’t know where to start when it comes to facial aesthetics?’ That’s where a partnership with an expert can be invaluable.

No fear strategy

In a recent survey 90% of GPs claimed that they had considered offering facial aesthetic treatments to their patients. However, in the same poll it was revealed that most decided against the practice mostly because they feared their lack of knowledge about the legal and marketing requirements, the required training obligations and concerns over the media horror stories about botched procedures.
In my experience the fears by these GPs echo those of the dental sector too.

The first step is to really evaluate your business. Does it have the capacity to offer facial aesthetics? Speak to your staff, you may be surprised to hear how enthusiastic they are about the treatments – some in fact could already be having some cosmetic procedures themselves.

If you have a place in your practice for facial aesthetics then brilliant, if you don’t that’s ok too. If you’re still unsure why not speak to an expert? At The Dental Directory we have a team of business consultants – not sales people – who can guide you through the process of introducing facial aesthetics to your practice.

Then, it’s time for training. Training dentists to deliver injectable cosmetic treatments is a relatively simple process as they are already experts in the field and familiar with the anatomy of the face. However, the difficulty often comes after the training has finished and they’ve got to introduce the treatments into the daily running of a practice and keep up with refresher training.

Because we’re independent we’re able to form direct partnerships with manufacturers and clinical experts and in turn able to pass access to partner supported training and development resources to practitioners. This means, in partnership with us, our customers can get access to the best training and insight into the sector from day one and that continues throughout the relationship so facial aesthetics can be integrated successfully into a practice.

All geared up

A further stumbling block we hear dentists talk about is that they’re not sure how to promote the treatments to their patients. But they need to consider the fact that dental practices by their very nature are geared up to offer facial aesthetics and, in my opinion, more so than many other providers. They have the premises, medical credibility, expert ability, cosmetic patient base and more importantly, they already have their patients trust. They’re just missing one vital element – a partner who can give them the support and confidence they need to succeed.

I’m not going to lie. Introducing facial aesthetics to a practice isn’t a quick process.But with a clear plan and industry partner in place dentists will reap the rewards in patient numbers and profitability.


Med-fx is the sister company to The Dental Directory. It is the UK’s only independent supplier of a full service line of facial aesthetics and skin rejuvenation products, including cosmeceuticals and surgery consumables.
website: www.dental-directory.co.uk/FacialAesthetics/

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