There was a time when Botox was a hush-hush therapy unique to the wealthy and well-known. This isn’t that point. Not solely are extra celebs and influencers speaking overtly about getting it today, however the injectable is much more accessible to us unknowns, too. As an alternative of taking the normal route of seeing a dermatologist or plastic surgeon—and shelling out at the very least $300 per appointment—now you can snag attractive offers on the Goal of Botox suppliers, if you’ll: med spas.

As Sonia Badreshia, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Elite MD outdoors of San Francisco and member of the Pores and skin of Coloration Society, tells SELF, a medical spa is a specialised facility that gives minimally invasive aesthetic remedies (or “tweakments,” as you’ll have heard them known as). Consider it as a one-stop store for a number of the hottest beauty procedures on the market, like microneedling, laser hair removing, and yep, Botox (or botulinum toxin, if you wish to get scientific).

However with so many facial-injection horror tales circulating on social media, you is perhaps questioning should you get what you pay for—and if going to a med spa for Botox is a completely legit option to save slightly cash, or the type of rookie mistake that you just’ll come to remorse.

Getting Botox at a med spa isn’t the identical as going to a health care provider’s workplace.

Whereas med spas supply a number of the similar injectables you will get at a derm’s or plastic surgeon’s workplace, there are some key variations between these practices. First, med spas are usually run by mid-level practitioners similar to superior observe registered nurses (APRNs) and doctor assistants (PAs) who rent educated technicians (similar to estheticians or registered nurses) to carry out beauty providers, David Shafer, MD, a double-certified plastic surgeon on the Shafer Clinic in New York Metropolis, tells SELF.

Many states require a supervising doctor to supervise the enterprise, however they’re not all the time required to be on-site, Dr. Shafer says. These medical doctors additionally might or might not carry out the remedies themselves, Marisa Garshick, MD, board-certified dermatologist at MDCS Dermatology in New York Metropolis, tells SELF.

However the largest distinction—and probably the most interesting—is the price. Botox for aesthetic functions isn’t coated by insurance coverage, Dr. Shafer says, and the injections usually vary between $300–$600 per therapy space, relying on the place you go and the place you reside. Med spas then again, are inclined to cost much less—round $200–$500 per space, in lots of circumstances. On high of that, a lot of them additionally supply package deal offers or reductions for a number of remedies. As Dr. Badreshia explains it, the primary motive these locations can afford to supply Botox at a less expensive charge comes right down to decrease overhead—particularly, it’s rather a lot cheaper to pay estheticians than medical doctors to manage Botox, she says.

Going to a med spa might improve your probabilities of problems.

Botox injections all the time include potential dangers, no matter the place you get them. In accordance with Dr. Garshick, these usually embrace bruising and eyelid or forehead drooping, in addition to hating the outcomes general and wishing you’ll’ve left your poor little face alone. However getting Botox at a med spa might improve the probability of those problems—and set you up for much more issues—if the individual performing your therapy isn’t correctly educated.