Tougher rules on cosmetic surgery advertising

Tuesday February 13, 2007 ins: Cosmetic Surgery News Tag(s):

Some doctors have really gone overboard. It is fine to market cosmetic surgery to a wider range of customer but it doesn’t mean they are going to do it in a way that masks the real nature of the cosmetic surgery procedures.

In Australia, complaints have been raised concerning the issue deceptive advertising of plastic and cosmetic surgery services. Health officials in Australia have been receiving dozens of complaints from patients who feel that they have been duped by their doctors.

The Age delivers more details.

Practitioners board president Jo Flynn said the guidelines she and the State Government negotiated with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in September 2004 were not working as they were designed to.

"We're not confident the guidelines are adequately protecting the public and so we're about to undertake a review of them," Dr Flynn said.

Of particular concern, she said, was the use of "before and after" photos and advertisements that "create unreasonable expectations" about a surgical outcome.

Patients should also be made aware of their doctor's credentials and the risks involved in their surgeries.

"The public doesn't have a great capacity to distinguish between different qualifications and what they mean," she said.

Though the board received fewer than 10 official complaints about cosmetic surgery advertisements in the past year, Dr Flynn said it was likely that patients were too embarrassed to come forward.

The problem lies heavily on the schemes employed by doctors to attract customers. In some cases, doctors are promising near-impossible results, misleading patients about their surgical expertise. Others offered cosmetic surgery services in an online auction site, where the highest bidders are entitled to undergo the procedure.

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