Aug 2009 - Yesterday, I saw a client who had just undergone her 4th IPL hair removal treatment in BelXX Skincare centre 3 days ago. She was wondering why she was feeling so much pain & itch on her back. On examination, she had >50 rectangular IPL burn marks on her back. I promptly gave her treatment for her burns & told her hopefully there won't be any permanent scars. Unfortunately, she had already committed RM10K to BelXX who promised her complete hair removal. I gave her a letter addressed to BelXX telling them what had happened & why i.e. untrained personnel with no understanding of machine physics operating the IPL machine. IPL should not be performed on someone who has a recent suntan. The BelXX girl had confidently assured this client that her suntan was "1 week ago, so no problem doing IPL". This beautician (assuming she has a basic beautician's certificate) has clearly forgotten that skin cell turnover is 28 days i.e. it takes 1 month for tanned skin to peel off! The client's tanned dark brown skin had absorbed the light & hence the burnt rectangular footprints on her skin! The BelXX girl's response to the doctor's letter was "It's not a burn mark, only crusting which will fall off & take away the pigmentation." She so generously gave this naive client a bottle of serum to assuage her concerns. Some of you are probably thinking - in this great country of ours, you can get away with murder, so what's a few burn marks on a naive client?
There are so many things wrong with this scenario I just don't know where to begin. Firstly, fine lightly pigmented baby hair on one's back cannot be removed by Intense Pulsed Light technology, it's even difficult for some of the more advanced laser systems. So, conning someone of RM10K is the first sin.
Secondly, the burn marks on her back were about 2 cm apart, evidence that the client was being shortchanged on the treatment i.e. only 1/3 the surface area of the back was being treated in a session.
Thirdly, the BelXX girl must be a real moron or thinks her client one to describe a burn as "only crusting" in the face of a doctor's letter stating the fact. The purpose of my letter wasn't to elicit a lawsuit although I personally think this client should have proceeded with one. The letter was an appeal to BelXX to recognise a mistake, admit it & take measures to ensure it doesn't happen again. What do they do? Sweep it under the carpet like what has happened umpteen times before...it's not only BelXX.
Here's another story from another client who also had hair removal (also done at BelXX but I'm not singling them out, I repeat, there are many other stories from other salons. It's just these stories I remember because BelXX advertises heavily with the most celebrities! ). The BelXX girl used a black marker pen to draw a square around where she wanted to perform the hair removal. This client had a nice black square tattooed onto her leg! How IPL works to remove hair is simply that black hair prefentially absorbs the IPL light to get destroyed - that's how you get destruction of the hair follicle. The black ink from the marker pen also absorbs the IPL hence burning the square mark onto the skin! The beautician's ignorance is laughable but the consequences of their ignorance is not.
I wrote the above about 1 month ago. Yesterday, another rip-off report from another client who went to BelXX. She went to BelXX asking about a moustache-like shadow on her upper lip & they promptly told her they could remove her upper lip hair & happily charged her RM1200 upfront for IPL hair removal. 2 weeks after the procedure, her upper lip shadow has now darkened into a stubborn dark brown patch. Even her regular beautician can tell her it was more pigmentation & not hair to start with! I confirmed her beautician’s suspicions – IPL can darken melasma (hormone-related pigmentation) – which is exactly what happened here.
P.S. - 1st case 1 month later - the burn marks healed with some post-inflammatory pigmentation which will hopefully fade with time. The client asked for a refund but they of course refused her.
To be fair, this noble profession of mine has also it's fair share of sinners. A few months ago, an educated Malay lady died in a medical clinic after undergoing her 14th liposuction. Her weight was a mere 53 kg when she died.
Again, there are so many things wrong with this scenario I don't know where to begin.
Dissecting it slowly, firstly, liposuction, under general anesthetic or not, should not be performed in a mere clinic where there is no medical emergency backup should something go wrong. Secondly, liposuction is an invasive procedure that should not be taken lightly. It's not a monthly body massage! Why on earth would someone weighing 53 kg continue to need liposuction?!
How about the client (with body dysmorphic disorder - condition whereby she has a morbid misconception that everything is wrong with her body) who walked into a famous plastic surgeon's office enquiring about a facelift & nose job & walked out having done enough plastic surgery to buy the equivalent of a Ferrari? I'm not exaggerating.
And why do some doctors reduce themselves to the level of unscrupulous beauticians?
Unscrupulous beauticians will skillfully manipulate the measuring tape to give the client "a total of 10 cm loss from your arms ,chest, waist, hips & both thighs!" (Just loosen up the tape 1 cm on each area to give an impressive total of 10 cm loss). A few days ago, a colleague who also practises cosmetic medicine full time proudly told me how many inches she has lost from mesolipo injections but sad to say, she still looked very fat with the spare tyres bulging through the skin-tight jeans. When I asked her what are the ingredients she is injecting into herself, she couldn't even name them! Some doctors actually delude themselves into believing in miraculous results so that they can convincingly con patients to do the same.
Patients trust doctors to know what we are injecting into them. They trust us to do things to them that won't kill or harm them. Of course, there is no such thing as a risk-free medical procedure but as doctors, we are responsible for knowing what we are doing & informing the patient of the pros & cons. Some people may act smart & claim to know everything since they can surf the internet but it is still our duty to impress upon them the true facts.
