How a Medical Spa Differs from a Day Spa
Services
One way in which day spas and medical spas differ greatly is
in the services that they provide. It’s important to be aware of what these
types of spas offer, so that you can ensure you’re looking for one that
provides the services you need. Day spas offer more surface-level treatments,
applying certain lotions, oils, or masks to the skin itself to help improve
appearance. While the massages they provide can certainly alleviate aches and
pains deep in the tissue, the massage itself obviously doesn’t go below the
skin. Specific services provided by a day spa might include:
- Massage (including Swedish, deep tissue, hot stone, etc.)
- Facials (surface-level only)
- Hair cut, color, and style services
- Manicure, pedicure, and nail services
- Spray tans and tanning booths
- Professional makeup application
- And so on
On the other hand, medical spas provide a much higher level
of service that is focused on skin issues and cosmetic problem by working from
the inside out. For example, rather than applying a tightening cream to the
skin as a day spa would to help smooth wrinkles, a medical spa would provide
different options to help stimulate collagen growth at a cellular level to
smooth out and improve the skin’s appearance. This provides much longer-lasting
results than your average facial.
Medical spas, as the name implies, provide services that
blend the cosmetic improvements at a day spa with the technology and science of
the medical field. By blending these two things, medical spas are better able
to provide more dramatic, longer-lasting results than anything a day spa can
provide at skin level. Examples of services commonly found at a medical spa
include:
- Chemical peels
- Fibroblast lifts
- Microneedling
- Body contouring
- Mesotherapy
- PRP facials
- Permanent makeup
- And more
If you know the kinds of results and services you’re looking
for, you can be better prepared to decide if you need a day spa or a medical
spa.
Products
Alongside the services they provide, day spas and medical
spas utilize different kinds of products. The products you’ll find in a day spa
are focused on those surface-level results: hair color, lotions, creams, and so
on. But medical spas have much more powerful, higher-quality products to
support the services they provide. Many of these products may only be applied
in the medical spa itself during your appointment; this is because a lot of
medical spa products, such as Xeomin and Kybella, must be injected into the
skin by a medical spa professional.
But medical spas can also provide higher-quality products
for you to use at home that just aren’t available at day spas. Obagi and ZO Skin Health products
are two good examples. These medical-grade skin care lines can only be purchased
at medical spas, and they provide much more dramatic results than any
anti-aging or skin-tightening products you’ll find at a day spa.
Training
Finally, the training and experience of the staff members is
a key difference between day spas and medical spas. Because medical spas
require much more intense procedures, the staff members performing these
procedures must have a license in esthetics as well as a medical background as either
a CNA or RN. These professionals are known as aesthetic nurse practitioners,
and they are genuine medical professionals who have been thoroughly trained on
the procedures they perform. Additionally, most medical spas are supervised by
a board-certified plastic surgeon, so there’s a fully certified doctor present
at all times, though they may not perform every procedure at the spa.
While day spa technicians do receive specialized training,
that training is focused on cosmetology services or massage therapy, depending
on their specific role at that spa. Some may even be licensed in esthetics, but
they generally don’t have any sort of medical background, as their jobs simply
don’t require that level of knowledge. And of course, there’s rarely a need for
a doctor to be supervising a day spa.
Now that you better understand these major differences
between day spas and med spas, you’ll be better equipped to select the right
kind of spa for the services you need and the kind of results you want. If you’re
looking for general relaxation and surface-level cosmetic improvements, a day
spa is what you need. But if you want long-lasting, dramatic improvements to
your skin and body, a medical spa is the better choice.
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