Who Can Perform Botox? What You Need to Know...

Lorna Jackson
By Lorna Jackson

Lorna was Editor of Consulting Room (www.consultingroom.com), the UK's largest aesthetic information website, from 2003 to 2021.


At the start of 2011, the Daily Mail ran an article by journalist Natalie Evans-Harding entitled “The Botox boom: Six women talk candidly about their quest for perfection”. The feature focused on the stories of 6 women, aged from 25 to 60 and their reasons for embarking on Botox® treatments.

Shockingly the opening introduction featured the sentence...

“Now you can book a Botox appointment in your lunch hour, and even your local hairdresser could administer the injections if they’ve been on the right course.”

Once I had recovered my composure from the sharp intake of breath this shocking statement had caused, I was simply flabbergasted that such irresponsible advice could be dished out by a publication with such a wide audience reach.

This highlights the clear lack of understanding and research conducted by so-called Beauty Journalists who themselves appear to view this treatment to be as trivial as having your hair or nails done.

The aesthetic industry has fought for many years, and is still fighting, to educate the consumer that Botox® injections and other prescription-only botulinum toxin type A brands such as Vistabel®, Azzalure®, Dysport®Xeomin® and Bocouture® should only be administered by properly trained medical practitioners such as Doctors, Nurses and Dentists having been individually prescribed to the patient by a Doctor, Dentist or Independent Nurse Prescriber.

Who can administer botox?

The launch of the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services ‘Treatments You Can Trust’ Quality Assurance register in September 2010 also aims to point the public in the direction of reputable and properly trained and qualified individuals for cosmetic injectable treatments including botulinum toxins and dermal fillers.

Yet the article in the Daily Mail failed to mention this as a resource. Instead pointing the public to BAAPS, a surgeon association, which as the industry well knows is not the main provider of aesthetic injectable treatments as they focus primarily on cosmetic surgery.

The body that regulates the licensing and supply of drugs in the UK is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). When it comes to their regulations on the supply and administration of botulinum toxin injections, published on their website, it states:

1. Who can administer these medicines?
They can be:
a. self administered
b. administered by an appropriate practitioner
c. administered by anyone acting in accordance with the directions of an appropriate practitioner. 

2.  Who is an appropriate practitioner?
A doctor, a dentist or, subject to certain limitations, a nurse or pharmacist independent prescriber or supplementary prescriber.

This would clearly, therefore, indicate that the MHRA would in no way view a ‘local hairdresser’ as an appropriate practitioner to administer botulinum toxin injections and no doubt they and the GMC, GDC or NMC would take a very dim view of any prescribing practitioner who gave directions to a hairdresser to administer the injections, no matter how many apparent training courses they had attended. 

UK Botox® Trainer and Clinical Trialist Dr. David Eccleston, Clinical Director at MediZen in Birmingham was also outraged to see this statement in print.

He said; “Once again, a poorly researched article trivialises the administration of a medical procedure. It is through the administration of Botox® and other botulinum toxins by persons not qualified in medicine that most problems occur."

Who can preform Botox treatments

"Dentists do have a good argument that they at least have medical training in anatomy and pharmacology (the means by which drugs work on the body). Nurses, once they have been through a detailed training programme lasting a year or more, can obtain a prescribing qualification which allows them to offer such treatments without the direct involvement of a doctor."

"But hairdressers, beauty therapists and their allied professions are in no way qualified to administer a prescription-only treatment of a drug, and doing so goes against best practice and is frankly illegal in my opinion."

"What prospective clients must realise is that the likelihood of causing side effects is highest in those with non-medical qualifications purporting to be a ‘Botox’ practitioner. A false economy indeed, and if things go wrong there would be no way that a hairdresser or beauty therapist would be able to manage such complications."

"Only go to a medical specialist clinic for such treatments or a reputable and insured nurse with a prescribing qualification."

At ConsultingRoom.com, we have made it our mission for the best part of 8 years now to educate the consumer when it comes to researching and finding an appropriate practitioner for any cosmetic treatment or procedure that they are contemplating.

We would always advise that the public seek botulinum toxin injections only from a Doctor (including Dermatologists and Cosmetic Surgeons), Dentist, Nurse (under the guidance of a Doctor or Dentist) or Independent Nurse Prescriber. Under no circumstances would we recommend seeking treatment from a Beauty Therapist, Hairdresser or other non-medically trained and qualified individual.

If you want to read more, the experts at Consulting Room really know what they're talking about and have put together who should you trust to do your botox?, Botox®, botulinum toxin type A, Vistabel®Azzalure®Dysport®Xeomin® and Bocouture® FAQs just for you. 

If you have more questions, you can use the Botox®, botulinum toxin type A, Vistabel®Azzalure®Dysport®Xeomin® and Bocouture® questions feature to talk to our panel of trained medical experts. 

If you're keen to get started with any of these treatments right away then you're in luck - those clever folks also have a list of trusted, accredited Botox®, botulinum toxin type A, Vistabel®Azzalure®Dysport®Xeomin® and Bocouture® clinics in your area.


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