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Could 8 Point Lift training take your practice to the next level?

As a professional in the aesthetic industry, you want to stay ahead of the game. Many industries move quickly as new technology, theories and practices emerge – but aesthetics is up there with the most dynamic. 

If you’re currently offering Botox and dermal filler treatments to your patients but would like to move your practice on, you’ll want to have your next move in mind.

Start by taking a look at our chart to determine your position in your medical aesthetics journey. How far along are you? If you’re on Step 9, you’re perfectly placed to add some more advanced treatments to your repertoire.

And perhaps the most advanced of all non-surgical treatments is the 8 Point Lift (also known as the ‘non-surgical facelift’ or ‘liquid lift’).

Why train in the 8 Point Lift?

Botox and dermal filler treatments have long been the gold standard when it comes to non-surgical facial rejuvenation, and with good reason. Both treatments, in skilled hands, can offer exceptional anti-ageing results on isolated areas.

But for patients looking for whole-face rejuvenation, a more advanced approach is needed. Traditionally, the go-to option has been facelift surgery. But with the advent of the 8 Point Lift, it’s now possible to produce dramatic anti-ageing results for your patients non-surgically.

Cosmetic Courses were the UK’s first independent training provider to offer advanced training in Allergan’s 8 Point Lift. We believe it is the natural next step for practitioners who have mastered basic Botox and fillers – the perfect opportunity to take your training, and your practice, to the next level.

The treatment uses Allergan’s 2nd generation VYCROSS™ range of advanced dermal fillers, and takes a more holistic approach. Instead of targeting one or two localised areas, as with traditional methods, the 8 Point Lift involves injecting filler into multiple key points on each side of the face.

This is an important difference. Taking a more comprehensive approach means we are treating not just the symptoms of volume loss (thin lips, nasolabial folds, etc), but actively addressing the root cause – a loss of volume throughout the mid-lower face.

The treatment will give your patients a natural but noticeable lift that can last for up to 18 months. Great for them, and great for building your reputation as a skilled, forward-thinking practitioner.

Find out more about 8 Point Lift Training

If you’d like to find out more about our 8 Point Lift training, how it could benefit your patients and help your practice grow, click here to see our 8 Point Lift course programme.

For more information on any of our training courses, please don’t hesitate to contact the team on 01844 318317 or email [email protected].

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Learn advanced facial rejuvenation with the Aurora Lift

The Aurora Lift forms the basis of our advanced facial rejuvenation training – both for our team at Aurora Clinics, and our delegates at Cosmetic Courses.

It’s used by our trainers in their own clinics, and to date remains the best method our Clinical Director Adrian Richards has found to achieve natural results from non-surgical treatment.

It gives us a blueprint for treatment, helping us focus on the important areas to achieve the most natural and long-lasting facial rejuvenation.

So what is the Aurora Lift?

The Aurora Lift essentially involves looking at the face as an A-frame (see picture below) and treating it accordingly, using a combination of Botox and facial fillers.

A FrameWith age, facial volume migrates gradually southwards. This changes the shape of the face from the inverted triangle of youth, with its apex facing down, to the traditional triangle of middle age and beyond, with its apex facing up.

Using the A-frame concept, we’re able to focus on distinct treatment areas to effectively counter this ageing triangle inversion.

It involves subdividing the face into areas which lie along the limbs of an extended ‘A’. To achieve the most harmonious facial rejuvenation, we ask our practitioners and delegates to focus on these areas.

 Aurora Lift points for facial rejuvenationThe A-frame Zones for Facial Rejuvenation
  1. Glabella
  2. Cheeks
  3. Nasolabial Folds
  4. Marionette Lines
  5. Pre Jowl Salcus

Glabella

The apex of the A is located over the glabella. This is treated in most cases with our standard 5 point Botulinum toxin pattern. This involves a single sub-cutaneous injection over procerus and 2 into either corrugator.

We find that sub-cutaneous placement is more comfortable for the patient, produces less bruising and trauma and reduces the risk of toxin diffusion into orbit which can result in weakness of the eye muscles.

Cheeks

Working downwards, the next focus areas lie at the ends of the transverse limb of the A-frame – the cheeks.  Where possible, we ask clients to bring in old photos so we can assess their volume changes over time. Our aim is to restore their youthful volume, not add more than they had as this can produce an unnatural appearance.

We restore lost volume with filler within each of the fat compartments of the cheeks. Our preferred method of delivery is with a blunt-ended cannula rather than a needle, as we believe it gives us more control whilst minimising trauma.

Nasolabial Folds and Marionette Lines

Our next focus areas, along the limbs of the A-frame, are the nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Again our preference is a cannula, as there is only one point of entry and less trauma as a result.

Care must be taken not to add too much volume here, as excess volume in the lower face can age rather than rejuvenate.

Most patients treated with the Aurora Lift will also have toxin treatment to the depressor anguli oris muscle to upturn the mouth and reduce the amount of dermal filler needed.

Pre Jowl Sulcus

Finally, the base of the A-frame lies below the jowls. Again, our preference here is to use a moderate dose of toxin in this region to reduce the downward pull of the platysma on the jowls.

Find out more

At Cosmetic Courses, we teach the Aurora Lift at our bespoke advanced training sessions. Attend one of these hands-on training days and you’ll learn the principles of the A-frame approach, and how best to apply them to achieve harmonious pan facial rejuvenation for your clients.

For more information or to book a place on our advanced course, please contact the team on 01844 318317 or email [email protected].

 

 

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Frequently asked questions about our Botox and fillers course

We often receive enquiries asking about particular aspects of our training courses – most commonly our Foundation and Advanced Botox and fillers courses.

With that in mind, we thought it’d be a good idea to answer some of the questions we are often asked here on our blog.

Am I eligible to attend a Botox and fillers course?

Our Botox courses are open to qualified medical professionals, which includes (but is not limited to) Doctors, Dentists, Registered Nurses, Surgeons, Trainee Surgeons, Dermatologists and Opthalmologists. If you belong to another medical profession and would like to check your eligibility, please contact us on 01844 390110 and we’ll be happy to advise.

Do I need to be UK registered to offer Botox treatment in the UK?

Yes. If you’re looking to offer Botox treatments to patients in the United Kingdom, you must have a current active UK registration.

Do I need to bring my own models?

No. We’ve built up a large database of models and will provide an appropriate model for your training needs. However, if you’d prefer to bring your own model, you’re more than welcome to do so. Many delegates choose to bring along a friend or colleague so they can see how their treatment progresses over time. Just let us know when you book your Botox and fillers course and we’ll be happy to accommodate.

What should I wear to my Botox and fillers course?

You should come in what you feel comfortable in. You will be treating real patients, so we’d encourage you to look relatively smart and professional. But the most important thing is that you feel confident and able to focus on what you are learning.

How much hands-on practice will I get?

The Botox and fillers course is practical in nature. After a morning of theory, it’s straight into hands-on practice in the afternoon.  You will mark up your model, choose the treatment you’re going to use and perform the treatment, supervised closely by your trainer. You’ll also watch other people in your group as they treat their models.

If you opt for one of our one-to-one courses, these are completely tailored to you, so you can choose your own balance of theory and practical.

How many people will be in the practical session?

We like to keep the training groups as small and informal as we can. We’ve found that 4 or 5 is the best group size to give you the best possible training.

Will I receive any information on business and marketing?

Running a successful aesthetic business requires more than clinical skills. To help you with the business aspects of practice, we will offer guidance about setting up your website and publicising your business.

We also have other resources to help you on an ongoing basis, including podcasts available to download from iTunes. In these, our Surgical Director Adrian Richards speaks about all aspects of aesthetic marketing with Ron Myers from Consulting Room.

Will I receive any support after completing my Botox and fillers course?

We pride ourselves on our comprehensive ongoing support. If you have any questions at all after completing your training, whether clinical or business related, you are always welcome to contact us for guidance.

With our delegates’ permission, we often answer some of the questions we receive in videos or other training materials so other people can benefit from the advice.

Cosmetic Courses offers aesthetic training in Buckinghamshire, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Essex and Kent. For more information about what to expect from our Botox and fillers course, please contact the team on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Our dermal filler courses – what will you learn?

With the industry growing at a rapid pace, there are now a number of training providers in the UK offering dermal filler courses.

All have slightly different approaches and course programmes, and with so much choice, it can be difficult knowing which one most suits your requirements.

To give you an idea of our approach, we thought we’d create a quick summary so you can get a feel for our dermal filler courses at a glance.

Who do we train?

While there are still no legal barriers to anyone learning to inject dermal fillers, at Cosmetic Courses we only train qualified medical professionals. That includes, but is not limited to:

  • Surgeons
  • Trainee Surgeons
  • Doctors
  • Dentists
  • Registered Nurses
  • Dermatologists
  • Ophthalmologists

We feel this is an important safeguard when it comes to injectable treatments. Only medical professionals have the necessary understanding of facial anatomy, as well as the knowledge and skills to recognise and deal with any complications that may arise.

What do our dermal filler courses cover?

All our dermal filler courses are combined with training in Botox. These two treatments are often used in tandem, so learning them together gives you a more nuanced understanding of how best to use them with your patients.

We offer two levels of training, depending on your level of experience.

a) Basic Botox and dermal filler training

If you’re new to the treatments, our Foundation level Botox and Dermal Fillers course gives you a thorough introduction to the products, as well as plenty of theory and practice in the techniques used for basic facial rejuvenation, corrective and enhancement treatments.

You’ll leave the one-day course able to offer:-

> Facial Rejuvenation

Smoothing frown lines and forehead lines; treating crows feet and squint lines (periorbital lines).

> Facial Corrective Treatments

Reducing lines around the mouth (perioral lines and oral commissures); softening lines running from base of the nose to the corner of mouth (nasolabial folds); treating frown and forehead lines; improving facial wrinkles.

> Facial Enhancement

Creating an enhanced natural lip border; producing a pout.

b) Advanced Botox and dermal filler training

If you’ve already completed basic training and are looking to learn more advanced techniques, our Advanced level Botox and Dermal Fillers course has more emphasis on practical hands-on experience.

By the end of this one-day course, you’ll be able to offer:-

> Advanced Dermal Filler Techniques

Combined filling (using different strengths of product to achieve optimum results); cheek augmentation; vermilion border enhancement; advanced peri-oral sculpting; cross hatching techniques; extended linear threading techniques.

> Advanced Botox Techniques

Cheek and jowl lifting; chemical brow lift; mental is treatments; treatment of platysmal bands; upper chest treatments; treatment of hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

We offer dermal filler courses at centres in Buckinghamshire, Leeds, Kent and Birmingham. For information about our training, our course tutors or centres, please don’t hesitate to gives a call on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Project Dynamite set to explode dermal fillers industry?

We know we’ve missed a trick. By rights we should have written about PRP Therapy (a.k.a ‘Vampire Facelift’) last week, being Halloween and all.

But we’re not going to make the same mistake twice, and miss another opportunity to integrate our blog with something topical.

So this week, with the sound of fireworks ringing in our ears, we’ve decided it’s a good time to talk about Allergen’s new initiative to change the public perception of dermal fillers. It’s Project Dynamite.

About Project Dynamite

Industry leader Allergan recently decided to explore the public’s attitude to dermal fillers. Broadly, the goal was to understand people’s motivations for seeking filler treatment, as well as the reservations they might have about fillers.

They conducted extensive research, speaking to 2,000 women of all ages to gauge their opinions about dermal fillers. The findings have now been circulated, and Allergan are convinced they will revolutionise the marketing efforts of clinics and practitioners when it comes to fillers.

Here are the 3 most significant findings of their research, and what they could mean for you:

1. When women refer to filler treatment, the majority use “facial fillers” rather than “dermal fillers”

This is an interesting one, and the implications are simple. As medical professionals, we may be more inclined to refer to “dermal fillers”. But it’s important to speak the same language as your patients. When referring to the treatment on your website, brochure and any promotional materials, it is probably better to refer to the treatment as facial fillers if you don’t already. This will make your website more easily found, and your communications more relatable.

2. There’s a stigma attached to having fillers, mainly for two reasons – people are worried about them looking unnatural, and they don’t fully understand the treatment

It seems that many people need access to much more information about fillers. This represents a great opportunity for you. Fact sheets, Q&As, FAQs, videos, before and after photos, case studies, testimonials – all of these will mark you out as a great information resource. People are hungry for information on filler treatment, so use your website and social media channels to give them plenty of useful information and assuage their fears.

3. Women today feel more positive about ageing, and ageing well is more important than looking young 

Of the women Allergan spoke to, only 20% said they wanted to look five years younger. However, 41% said they wanted to look fresher and more radiant. This should be reflected in your marketing messages. Focusing more on the idea of fillers helping women look good for their age rather than looking younger will resonate more with your potential patients, and reflect the way they feel about themselves.

Cosmetic Courses are one of the UK’s most established training providers for medical professionals looking to enter the aesthetic industry. For more information on our dermal filler training, please contact us on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Business potential for plastic surgery clinics or private practitioners

The growth of non-invasive procedures is the largest in the aesthetic medicine industry and so provides plastic surgery clinics with the most potential when it comes to growing their business. Many clinics have become savvy to this and now offer procedures such as Botox, fillers and chemical peels alongside their usual offering of surgical procedures.

So why aren’t more? It could simply be down to training – most plastic surgeons are experts in the field of surgery as opposed to non-invasive treatments, despite them becoming so popular and widely available. At the moment such procedures can be performed by a number of different professionals, so do you re-train or invest in new staff and train those?

Which route will depend on the individual business, however one thing is clear – as the fastest-growing area within the industry it’s not something that plastic surgery clinics can ignore. There are different types of courses available to medical professionals, including for plastic surgeons already in practice, such as Botox and dermal filler training.

Hiring professionals who already perform such procedures is another possibility, rather than taking the surgeon’s focus away from their primary task. Alternatively it’s also possible to hire staff who are not currently performing such procedures and paying for their training whilst they work on the job.

If you are a medical professional considering aesthetic training, contact the team at Cosmetic Courses for information and dates on our next Botox courses, microdermabrasion courses and more. Call 01844 390110.

 

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Botox and Filler Training: Movements in the News?

Recently in the press, the issue of Botox and Filler training and who can be trained has come to light. Due to legislation only medically trained professionals are able to teach but also learn how to inject Botox and fillers.

At Cosmetic Courses we only offer our training to medical professionals – our delegates being a mixture of Doctors, Dentists and Nurses. Our delegates have to be medically qualified and registered with one of the following: General Medical Council, General Dental Council or Nursing and Midwifery Council. This ensures that our delegates are fully licensed to practise within the UK.

In one case an untrained man has been caught teaching Botox and Fillers to beauty therapists, who cannot legally participate in these courses as they lack the required medical qualifications. The man training the beauty therapists was sentenced to time in prison due to the severity of his actions.

This is unfortunate for those trained by him, as they naturally believed the certificate he provided was authentic and allowed them to practise. However, as any respected  non-surgical training provider will know, beauty therapists are not allowed to perform Botox and Dermal Filler treatments.

Therefore it is essential that at Cosmetic Courses we offer our training to the correct delegates. We are CPD certificated as well as having a working partnership with Hamilton Fraser, our insurance company, to ensure this.

Through training with Cosmetic Courses you get the security that our highly trained professional team are there for continued support, from helping you when you start your new career choice to the finer details that may occur throughout your career.

Furthermore, all our trainers are experienced and registered with the relevant medical governing bodies, so they are fully qualified to teach and perform Botox and Filler treatment in line with the regulations and legislations currently in place in the UK.

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Botox and Dermal Fillers Foundation Training Course – Our Latest Feedback

We’ve collated the results of the feedback for our latest training course – and the results are very encouraging.

On Saturday 7th July, we ran another successful Foundation course in Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Fillers.

Though the course was fairly small, the feedback we received showed that satisfaction levels are going from strength to strength.

In fact, it was among the best feedback we have received since we began. We’re very proud to share the results with you here.

The Verdict

Here’s how our delegates rated us:

  • 100% would recommend the course and return for further training
  • 100% thought the speakers communicated effectively
  • 100% thought the venue was suitable for the training
  • 100% thought the demonstrations were well presented and informative
  • 100% thought the hands-on experience was valuable
  • 98% thought there was sufficient time for discussion

A fantastic set of feedback, and we hope that many of our Foundation course delegates choose to continue their study with Cosmetic Courses – either by moving up to the next level on our Intermediate and Advanced courses, or broadening their expertise into other areas like Dermaroller and Skin Peels.

If you would like to attend our next Foundation Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Fillers course, it will be held on Saturday 11th August. Click here to book your place. Alternatively, we are always happy to arrange bespoke one-to-one training sessions at a time that’s convenient for you. Contact us for more information on 0845 230 4110 or email [email protected].

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Feedback from our latest Botox and Dermal Fillers Foundation Training Course

The results of our latest training course are in…..and they’re better than ever!

Last Saturday, 12th May, Cosmetic Courses ran another fully subscribed Foundation course in Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Fillers.

We routinely ask all our delegates to fill out feedback forms to let us know what we’re doing right, as well as highlighting any areas we can improve on.

We’ve now collated the feedback from Saturday’s course, and are very proud to be able to share the results with you here.

The Verdict

Here’s how our delegates rated us:

  • Accommodation and travel were given a score of 96%
  • Structure of the course and discussion time scored 97%
  • Course  presentation, lecture, demonstration, venue and effectiveness of communication were all rated 99%
  • Value of the course and amount learned were given a perfect 100%!

Our Foundation courses are designed for delegates just starting out in their aesthetic careers, and mark the very first step in their journey, so it’s particularly satisfying to hear that they found our latest course so useful.

We hope that many of these happy delegates will decide to join the ranks of our previous Foundation course delegates who have progressed to further study on our Intermediate and Advanced courses, or broaden their training into other areas such as Skin Peels and Dermaroller.

If you missed out on our last training course and would like to attend the next one, it will be held on Saturday 23rd June. Alternatively, we are always happy to arrange bespoke one-to-one sessions at a time that suits you. Contact us for more information on 0845 230 4110 or email [email protected].

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Q&A: Using Hyaluronidase to Dissolve Dermal Filler

Question :

Dear Cosmetic Courses,

I have a patient with the following Dermal Fillers query and wondered whether you could advise? At the beginning of December, she had Juvederm Dermal Filler injected into an area under her cheekbone. Initially the region was tender and sore. After about a week the pain increased and her face became swollen on one side with a round hard solid lump in this area.

She went away on holiday shortly after and, whilst away, phoned her GP who advised her to take antibiotics. She has since been on a seven day course of amoxyllin and a five day course of augmentin 625mg. On returning she visited the same GP who advised her to see a specialist as he was not sure if an abscess had formed or a haematoma .

I have now examined the area, however, and feel that this is not an abscess as it is a hard mass and therefore, could maybe be a haematoma, or the filler with an infection around it?  Her own GP back home seems to agree as he has taken her off the augmentin and put her on a course of cefuroxime 250mg.

Do you think Hyaluronidase might dissolve the filler and how long after the infection has healed can this be done (providing that the lump is the filler! )

Answer :

Unfortunately, it does sound as though your patient has an infection in her cheek area which the GP was right to treat with antibiotics.

When the infection has settled down it may be possible to treat her with Hyalase but this is certainly not recommended whilst infection is still prevailant.

We may be able to provide further advice and information if you send a photograph of her to: [email protected]

Should there be further problems, our expert surgical team at Aurora Clinics would be happy to see her for a free consultation.

Best Wishes,

The Cosmetic Courses Team

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