0
€0.00
0 items
Adverts for beauty injections are everywhere these days. Prices differ several times over, offers arrive straight into your inbox, and treatments are done in clinics, in living rooms, and by people who took a weekend course. A woman who simply wants to look fresher is left alone with one question: who should I actually go to, and how do I know this is safe.
The good news is that Estonia has had a clear answer to this for years. Very few people know about it.
The Estonian Health Board (Terviseamet) puts it plainly: aesthetic non-surgical medical procedures may be performed only by healthcare professionals. Not by a beauty specialist, not by someone with a certificate from a short course, but by a registered healthcare professional.
In practice this means two things. The practitioner must be listed in the national register of healthcare professionals, and the clinic must hold a valid Terviseamet licence to provide healthcare services. Both registers are public, and anyone can check them.
The rule covers more than dermal fillers. It also applies to botulinum toxin injections, contouring, mesotherapy, microneedling and chemical peels. In other words, almost everything people call beauty injections and serious skin treatments.
Terviseamet also lists what the person holding the syringe must know: the anatomy of the skin, face and neck, an understanding of physiology, the ability to take a medical history and assess the patient's health, to recognise contraindications and to manage complications.
That is the heart of it. Almost anyone can learn to place a product neatly within a fairly short time. But understanding that this treatment is not right for you at this moment, spotting a complication as it begins and knowing what to do about it, is not possible without a medical foundation. Complications are rare, but they do happen, and they are resolved in minutes rather than days.
People are often surprised when I say this: a filler is not a cosmetic. Under the European medical devices regulation, dermal fillers fall into a separate category, Annex XVI. These are products without a direct medical purpose but carrying the same risks as medical devices. Breast implants, liposuction equipment and lasers ended up in that same category.
The requirements came into force in June 2023, with transition periods for part of the market running until the end of 2028 and 2029. Manufacturers must have a quality management system and prove the safety of their product. Put simply, the European market is being cleaned up, and products that cannot demonstrate their safety will disappear from it.
Terviseamet recommends five things to clients, and I would sign my name under every one of them.
I would add two questions of my own. First: what exactly are you being injected with. The product should carry a CE mark, packaging, an expiry date and a batch number, and your practitioner can show you the packaging and open it in front of you. Second: what happens if something goes wrong. For hyaluronic acid fillers there is a product that dissolves them, and it should be within reach.
One more thing. A cheap filler ordered online is the main source of complications. An official supplier costs more for a reason.
My principle is simple: do no harm. It applies not only to what I do, but also to what I talk people out of. I will not perform a treatment if I can see that a person does not need it right now. And I am in no hurry to follow novelties until I have seen how they behave in real practice rather than in a manufacturer's presentation.
Injectable cosmetology is safe when approached properly, and I have worked with it for many years. But choosing a practitioner by price and by a pretty social media feed is a poor idea. Asking about education, licences and products is completely normal, and a good practitioner will answer calmly.
Beauty should not cost you your health. If you are thinking about injections and would like to understand everything calmly first, come in for a consultation. We will work out what your skin actually needs and what is unnecessary, without pressure and without promises of miracles.
Sources: Terviseamet guidance that beauty injections may be performed only by healthcare service providers, and its recommendations for the safety of beauty treatments; European Union medical devices regulation, Annex XVI.
