You wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, you closely observe your skin and you then realize that you don’t like what you see. Oh, a pity! You then get uncomfortably obsessed with your skin and go on to apply a dozen skin creams and try on a score of facial masks but in the end it all seems like headed nowhere. Caught in the midst of such a cosmetic predicament, if there is one person who can help you out, it has got to be a medical esthetician. Medical estheticians are a bunch of experts whose work revolves around the performance of cosmetic procedures, laser treatments and even therapeutic treatments. With medical estheticians, bidding farewell to your cosmetic blues should really be a breeze. However, if you are looking forward to making your own mark on the other side of the spectrum, you might be interested in gaining knowhow on what it takes to become a medical esthetician. Here’s helping you find just that!
Becoming A Medical Esthetician
Requirements
Eligibility
Contrary to popular belief, medical estheticians don’t get to become licensed professionals by virtue of a degree. In other words, it all depends on the number of hours spent on training and not on the number of hours spent rummaging through text books. In order to be eligible for a training program, an aspiring medical esthetician must have completed a 10+2 or an equivalent grade. This makes for the most basic educational requirement that can help pave a person’s way to becoming a medical esthetician. Going by protocols for training programs, training of medical estheticians lasts for around nine months, post which, the interns can go on to do diplomas and associate degrees. The duration of diplomas and associate degrees vary from institution to institution. When going under such programs, students or aspiring medical estheticians learn quite a lot on skin care procedures, microdermabrasion, hair removal, specialty masks, hair removal techniques, etc.
Skills Required
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A medical esthetician, as a rule of thumb, is required to have sufficient knowledge on a technique known as ‘Manual Lymphatic Drainage’ or MLD. The technique was developed by Dr. Emil Vodder in the 1930s.
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Acne makes for one of the most common skin conditions that medical estheticians should know how to treat. Hence, knowledge and skills on acne assessment is a must. A good medical esthetician should also be familiar with the various methods of exfoliation.
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Familiarity on Fitzpatrick and Gloagau classification makes for yet another skill. These are nothing but scales of classification that help determine a patient’s level of adaptability to professional treatment.
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Other essentials skills can include expertise on the effects of the sun on the skin, wound healing, anatomy, physiology, cosmetic chemistry and its associated procedures and universal cosmetic precautions in general.
Roles And Responsibilities
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Cosmetology and aesthetics; now this is what a medical esthetician is supposed to be responsible for. In a competitive world, where looking good is just as important as anything else can be, a medical esthetician has quite a number of roles to perform and huge responsibilities to fulfill.
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Cosmetically speaking, a medical esthetician’s roles are diverse. A medical esthetician’s role can range from treating someone for acne to helping someone conceal a tattoo.
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As for responsibilities and requirements, a medical esthetician is expected to be educated, and have a certain number of training hours under his/her belt. Only this can warrant him/her to dish out treatment to people ‘suffering from cosmetic ailments’.
Career Prospects
For a medical esthetician, it all begins with specialized jobs, but from then on there is no telling what possibilities can come along the path. Jobs may revolve around specialized opportunities offered by clinics. These jobs include the need to cater to skin infections, tattoo correction, hair removal, etc. To cut a long story short, this job is all about addressing commercial cosmetic needs and the cosmetic market is among the fastest growing consumer markets. Opportunities for a medical esthetician may also come in the form of dermatological openings. Experienced medical estheticians can look at starting off their own businesses provided they have the required expertise and capital. Operating a general cosmetology service or even a medical esthetician service makes for yet another opportunity that cannot be ignored. Lastly, medical estheticians can always consider the options of working as travel therapists for medical practices and even making it big as advanced specialist medical estheticians.
You now know what it takes to become a medical esthetician. If you are looking forward to being the one treating cosmetic issues as opposed to complaining about the same, a licensed and much sought after medical esthetician is what you want to be!
