Ugly side of beauty treatments

Hyderabad: Rampant misuse of laser treatments on patients was recently brought to the fore with the case of physiotherapist Kunda Reddy performing laser hair removal treatment on an NRI, Chandana Reddy. Ms Reddy developed scars and burns on her lower jaw following the treatment. While Mr Kunda Reddy and the owner of the clinic, Dr M. Kiran Kumar, are out on bail, the Madhapur police has still not received their qualification certificates.

Inspector Srinivas Rao said, “We have got the certificate of physiotherapy from Mr Kunda Reddy but not any other certificate qualifying him to do the laser treatment.” Laser treatments must ideally be done by qualified dermatologists and cosmetologists. Doctorate degrees do not mean they are qualified enough, as they have to undergo a certificate course with multinational companies or the Academy of Doctors.

Read: Woman’s face burnt in hair removal treatment in Hyderabad

Dr Pallavi Reddy, a cosmetic dermatologist, said, “In our country there are no rules and regulations. The companies supplying laser machines qualify the doctors and give certificates. If it is a high-end company from Western countries, all care is taken to ensure that the best of the academia qualifies for the certificates. Often, doctors are taken abroad and trained. But that is not the case with most of the laser machines that are flooding the market. They come from Korea, China and Taiwan and the use of each is different as they are different models.”

Dermatologists and cosmetologists say that laser machines must be used only by qualified doctors. For this reason, all clinics have to display the certificates of the doctors at the reception and also qualifications of the para-medical staff. In majority of the clinics, this is not followed.

Dr Sunita Shanker, plastic and cosmetic surgeon, said, “We have seen cases where beauticians and Intermediate pass girls have carried out laser hair removal treatments and caused burns to patients. The frequency of the heat is adjusted according to the skin type, body type and the ability of the individual to bear heat. Darker people like us require excess care as our skin type requires more heat, or sometimes the hair follicle is very strong and heat does not have the desired effect. In such cases the frequency is increased. These decisions come with practice. Each patient is different. But in slimming clinics and beauty parlours we have found that attendants end up treating each patient on one scale leading to redness, irritation, blemishes and deep burns.”

Officials can only act on complaints

There is no physiotherapy council in Hyderabad so all graduating physiotherapists are not registered anywhere in the city. The government which has failed to make the registration of these medical professionals compulsory. Action against erring doctors is only taken on the basis of complaints from patients.

Read: Most Indian laser therapy clinics do not follow any norms

Health  officials are supposed to ensure that clinics display the proper qualifications of doctors. A senior officer said, “No proper checking done. A hue and cry is raised only when an incident takes place after that everything becomes quiet.”

It also becomes important for the consumer to be pro-active. Dr Ravinder Reddy, chairman of the AP Medical Council says, “We have acted on all complaints by patients.” We will be more than happy if there are genuine complaints pouring in as it helps to keep a check on wrong practices otherwise they are simply found to flourish duping a lot of customers. The cosmetic market has seen a huge rise and in their bid to look their best many are willing to experiment with new technology.”