Facial Assessment and Patient Consultation

Before the first supervised treatment, a clinician should know where facial assessment and consultation sit in a course. This guide places them using a published tier outline.

Bring the course's topic list

Bring the topic list of the course you are considering. Clinicians in Summit, New Jersey can ask each course they are weighing for that list. You will compare it against the outline in the next section.

Where the outline puts assessment

PubMed Central carries a description of tiered training. It states: Tier 1 will focus on core principles of aesthetic medicine including: anatomy and physiology, fundamentals of neurotoxin and dermal fillers, the science of aging, the art of facial assessment and consultation, injection techniques, aseptic protocols, and recognition and management of common complications.

Two items in that list matter here: the art of facial assessment and consultation, and injection techniques. Assessment and injection techniques share one tier in that outline.

An injector studies a seated client's cheek and jawline with a light touch while a nurse takes notes at a desk

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics includes an opinion on informed consent. Read it alongside whatever your course says about consultation. Note where the course speaks about consent and where it stays silent.

Patient selection

Before patient selection comes up, one condition a reader may want background on is body dysmorphic disorder, which Wikipedia covers in an entry on the disorder. Ask the course where patient selection appears in its schedule.

The facial map

Assessment ends in a decision about where to inject. PubMed Central also carries an article on high yield injection targets and danger zones for facial filler injection. Read its title as a prompt for your questions about anatomy teaching.

Find the assessment line in the outline

This step is done when you can point to the line in the course outline that covers assessment and consultation. Once that line is found, the Plastic Surgery Practice article AAAMS Launches Mentorship Program to Support Early-Career Aesthetic Injectors is a useful next read.