Questions for a cosmetic consult

Take a written list, ask about the people, the product, the risks and the aftercare, and remember that “not today” is an allowed ending. The TGA cosmetic injections checklist already tells you to attend a consult, confirm a prescription pathway, check registration, ask about experience, understand risks, research the product, and obtain written aftercare. This page turns those themes into questions you can say out loud.

It is not a script for talking yourself into a procedure. It is not medical advice about your face. Do not email the answers to this website.

Before you go

• Have I searched the names on AHPRA?
• Do I know whether the consult is in person or by video, and who will be present?
• Have I written down the change I actually want to talk about, in my own words?
• Have I looked at the skin in good light for anything that is new, changing or bleeding — and if so, is this still the right appointment?
• Am I prepared to say that I am travelling, pregnant, breastfeeding, unwell, or taking medicines that the prescriber must know about?

If a changing lesion is the real issue, Healthdirect and a GP or dermatologist are the right first door. A cosmetic consult is not a skin-cancer clinic unless the practitioner is actually providing that care.

Questions about the people

• What is your name as it appears on the AHPRA register?
• What is your profession and what is your role today — assess, prescribe, inject, or assist?
• If someone else will inject, what is their name and profession?
• Who is responsible if I have a problem tonight?
• How would I reach that person after hours?

You are allowed to write the answers down. A professional who is used to the TGA checklist will not be offended by a notebook.

Questions about the problem and the alternatives

• What are you seeing that matches — or does not match — the problem I described?
• What are the options, including doing nothing and including non-injectable care?
• Is any part of this a medical skin issue rather than a cosmetic one?
• Why this area, and why not another area someone on the internet mentioned?

The College of Dermatologists reminds readers that ageing has more than one cause. A good consult can say “this line is mostly movement”, “this is sun damage”, or “this mark needs another kind of review”. Those are more useful sentences than a zone upsell.

Questions about the product

• What product are you considering, and what is the active substance?
• Is it included on the ARTG?
• May I see the packaging and the English-language label before it is used?
• Where was it sourced?
• Where do I read the Consumer Medicine Information?

Advertising law may stop a clinic from putting a brand on a billboard. It does not stop you from being told the name in a consult. If you cannot get a name, you cannot complete the TGA’s product check.

Questions about risk and aftercare

• What are the common effects you expect me to notice?
• What are the serious risks, including to vision and to skin, that I need to understand?
• What would you want me to treat as urgent?
• What written aftercare will I leave with?
• When do you want to review me, and what happens if I am not in the country?

We still will not publish a generic hours-and-days list. That list, if it exists, is theirs to give you.

Questions that protect the pause

• What happens if I say I want to think about it?
• Is any part of today’s fee a pressure to proceed?
• Are you asking me to decide about extra areas I did not come in for?

Informed consent is not a race. If you feel flattered, hurried or shamed, you can leave. AHPRA’s cosmetic-procedure consumer work has repeatedly treated advertising that exploits insecurity as a problem. The same instinct applies in the room.

After you get home

Follow the written aftercare. Keep the product name. Use urgent care for the red flags you were given. Do not ask this website to interpret a photograph. Do not start a second practitioner’s plan without telling both.

If you want to tell the publisher that one of these questions is outdated because a TGA page changed, use contact. That is a website correction, not a clinical follow-up.

How this list should not be used

Clinics should not paste this page onto a landing page that then says “book your anti-wrinkle package”. Readers should not treat a completed list as a consent form. Students should not treat it as a procedure manual. It is a consumer question list aligned to public regulator themes.

For the pathway around the questions, read what to expect. For the harm conversation, read risks and aftercare. For the sun that still matters the next morning, read skin ageing and sun protection.

A note on photographs you bring

People sometimes arrive with a younger photograph of themselves, or with a stranger’s face. Those images can help you explain a feeling. They can also set an impossible brief. A practitioner who is working ethically may say that the photograph is not a plan. That sentence can be a kindness. This site will not ask you to chase a past face, and it will not publish a gallery that pretends such a chase is normal.

If you do bring a photo, bring it as a conversation aid, not as a specification. Do not send it to our contact form.

Money questions that are still allowed in the room

You may ask what the consult fee covers, whether a procedure fee is separate, and what happens if you decline. Those are process questions. They are not the same as a public price list for a prescription medicine. If the answer is a package that bundles extra areas you did not request, slow down. Ask which items are the medicine, which are the room, and which are optional.

Do not use our website as a price oracle. We will not become one.

Language barriers and support people

You can bring a support person. You can ask for an interpreter. You can ask for the aftercare sheet in plain language. Consent that you did not understand is not consent. If a clinic treats those requests as a nuisance, that is information about the clinic.

If you are asking on someone else’s behalf

Adult children sometimes attend with a parent. Friends sometimes attend with a nervous traveller. The person who would receive a medicine still needs to understand it. Do not turn this list into a way to talk someone into a procedure they do not want. If you are unsure about capacity or pressure, a GP is a better first call than a cosmetic receptionist.

After the appointment, even if nothing was done

Write down what you were told while it is fresh: names, product, risks mentioned, and whether you were given written material. If you decide later to proceed, you have a record of the first conversation. If you decide not to, you still have a clearer picture of the category. That is a successful use of a consult.

This page can be printed. It does not need your name on it. It does not need ours on a clinic clipboard as if we had endorsed the rooms.

Practising the pause out loud

It can feel rude to say “I want to think about it.” It is not rude. You can say: “Thank you. I am going to read the CMI and I will contact you if I want to go further.” You can say: “I am not deciding extra areas today.” You can say: “I need the names in writing first.” Those sentences keep the consult on the TGA’s rails.

If you cannot say them in that room, that is also information. Pressure is easier to notice when you have already chosen the words at home.

If you forget half the list

You do not need every question. You need the ones that establish identity, product, risk, aftercare and the right to stop. If you only ask five things, ask those. The longer list is a menu of prompts, not a test.

Relationship to the FAQ

The FAQ answers the public questions this site was built around. This guide is the private list you take into someone else’s rooms. Do not mix them up. Our FAQ will never tell you that you are a candidate. Your consult might tell you that you are not.

Print this page, or copy the headings. Leave our branding off the clipboard. The questions are the useful part.