Mall medical spas cater to need for speed

A trip to the mall used to mean shopping and maybe a bite to eat. Now, a mall customer can stop to have some minor surgery or a laser treatment at a medical spa. "We have lots of walk-in business," says William Nelson, medical director of Skinovative Laser Center at a fashion center mall in Chandler, Ariz.

Eager customers don't get a beauty fix right away, not only because the clinic requires a consultation before treatment, but also because it's usually booked.

Medical spas - especially those in shopping malls - have bridged the gap between the doctor's office and the cosmetics counter. There are more than 2,000 medical spas in the country, and though they accounted for 3 percent of all spas in 2004, that grew to 7 percent in 2006, according to the International Spa Association.

Ease of use is key

Nelson says people seek out mall spas because they are more convenient and luxurious than a doctor's office.

Although some of the clinic's business is walk-in, most people know what they want and have done research before they arrive, Nelson says.

"People are not coming in here ignorant," he says. "They'll ask about specific types of lasers and what kind of training we've had."

Asking questions is the best way to get a good outcome at a medical spa, according to the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. There's no uniform regulation of medical spas, and states vary widely in requirements for training and supervision.

"People assume there is some minimum standard of training. They see people in white coats," says Ranella Hirsch, a dermatologic surgeon in Boston and chairwoman of the ASDS committee that's working on the regulation issue.

"The challenge of this is, what if something goes wrong?" Hirsch says. "That's where the training (of a physician) comes in."

The society is trying to ensure all technicians are supervised by a physician on the site.

Hair removal is No. 1

Nelson, a naturopathic physician, says the most popular procedure at Skinovative is laser hair removal, followed by Botox injections to smooth wrinkles, and then tattoo removals. But the various laser treatments to rejuvenate skin are also becoming popular. That follows nationwide trends as well, which means that most of the problems that crop up are with laser hair removal and other laser procedures - either operators using the wrong laser or using the correct laser the wrong way.