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Advertising for cosmetic surgery, cosmetic surgery, and cosmetic dermatology

Before undergoing cosmetic surgery, patients gather information when deciding which medical institution to treat at. In the past, most information was collected from paper media such as magazine and newspaper ads, but recently, with the spread of the Internet, many people use search engines to directly look at the websites of medical institutions to obtain information. Many people seem to think that they can be trusted because they are advertised on TV, or because they are a famous clinic. Advertising and promotion requires a huge budget. The average publication fee for a one-page color advertisement in a major national magazine is 1 to 150 million yen. There are many clinics whose annual advertising budget far exceeds 180 million yen just by advertising in multiple major national magazines. Since the number of patients is limited, advertising investment costs cannot be recovered unless expensive surgeries are performed. In other words, it is not surprising that clinics are trying to increase their profits by providing treatments such as breast augmentation surgery, liposuction, facelifts, and human growth hormone replacement therapy, which are said to be the cash cows of cosmetic surgery. These treatments can earn more than 1 million yen in medical fees per session. In fact, there are cases where doctors with little experience try to recover their initial investments quickly by performing these high-risk, high-return surgeries, causing major problems. In order to recover huge advertising costs, they recommend surgery to patients who are not suitable for the procedure. Patients also need to analyze information such as cosmetic surgery, the doctor's background, and specialty. A conscientious doctor will not perform any surgery or treatment that he is not confident in. Surgery and treatment are also performed carefully, taking into consideration the suitability of the procedure. Advertisements never list risks or disadvantages. It is better to think of advertisements as just one piece of information. Recently, the number of clinics where dermatologists are providing treatment under the pretext of cosmetic dermatology has increased rapidly, but there are also cases where new treatments are suddenly performed based only on knowledge obtained from a company. It would be fine if the doctor himself still performed the procedure himself, but it would be a shame if effective treatments performed by dermatologists who leave everything to nurses and do not have the medical skills are questioned. We recommend that patients do not take advertisements at face value, but gather information and receive counseling until they are satisfied.