Deciding

The questions to ask before you pay for a course

Fifteen questions to ask before paying for a non-surgical body treatment course, and what an evasive answer to each one tells you.

Deciding· Reviewed 2026-08-01·Published by Northbank Media
A crystal lattice growing in geometric clusters. Structure forming under cold light.
A crystal lattice growing in geometric clusters. Structure forming under cold light.
The short answer

The most useful questions are not about the technology. They are about candidacy, about who will treat you, about what happens if it does not work, and about the total cost including maintenance. A well run clinic answers all of them without difficulty, because the answers are ordinary facts about how the business operates. The reaction to the questions is at least as informative as the answers, and the single most revealing one is asking what would make them decline to treat you.

This is the practical page. Print it, or keep it open on a phone. The questions are grouped in the order they are useful, which is not the order a consultation naturally takes.

Candidacy, first

1. What would make you decline to treat me? The single most informative question available. A practitioner who can describe the people they turn away is describing a clinical assessment. One who cannot is describing a shop.

2. Which tissue is producing what I am unhappy about: fat, skin, muscle or something else? If the answer is vague, the assessment has not been done. Our guides to skin laxity and the two fat compartments will let you check the answer.

3. Does this treatment act on that tissue? Ask it directly, as a yes or no question. A great deal of unhappiness in this category comes from a treatment that acted on a different tissue from the one causing the concern.

4. Is my weight stable enough for this? If it is not, the sensible answer is to wait. A clinic that treats you during a period of weight change is treating a moving target.

The order to ask inCandidacy: is thisaddressed to myproblem at allMechanism: what doesit act on and whatwill it not doPeople: who assessesme and who treats meMoney: total costincluding maintenanceFailure: what happensif it does not work
The order matters. Most consultations begin at the fourth step and never return to the first. Starting at the first changes the entire conversation, and it frequently ends it early, which is a saving.

Mechanism, second

5. What device is this and what does the manufacturer state it is intended for? The stated intended purpose is a fact, and comparing it to what the clinic says it does is informative.

6. Is the effect produced by destroying tissue or by provoking a response? This determines whether you are buying a banked or a maintained effect, and therefore the real cost. See what happens when you stop.

7. Describe in words what a realistic change looks like on me. Not photographs of other people. Words, about you. A practitioner who will not commit to a verbal description has told you something about their confidence.

8. What proportion of the people you treat see little or no change? Every treatment in this category has non-responders. A clinic that claims none is either not measuring or not saying.

The people, third

9. Who will assess me, and who will operate the device? These are frequently different people and sometimes neither is a registered healthcare professional. In most of the United Kingdom there is no general legal requirement that they are, which we cover in how these devices are regulated.

10. What training and registration do they hold, and what is the registration number? Registration numbers can be checked free on the public registers of the GMC, NMC and the other healthcare regulators. Where the practitioner is on a voluntary register such as the JCCP, that can be checked too.

11. Who is clinically responsible if something goes wrong at the weekend? A name and a route, not a social media account.

12. What indemnity arrangements are in place? An ordinary question for any provider of a service that can cause harm.

Claim adjudicationRules question
The claim, as this sector makes it
“There is no need to overthink it. Most people just book and see how they get on.”

What would have to be true

  • That a procedure with a biological effect and a recognised contraindication list is a low-consideration purchase.
  • That proceeding without assessment is an acceptable default.

What is actually established

  • Every mechanism in this category has contraindications, several of them serious.
  • Advertising rules address the trivialisation of procedures carrying clinical risk.
  • Consent requires that a person is informed about risks and alternatives before agreeing.
Verdict: Rules question

Discouraging consideration is the clearest signal available in a consultation. Anything said to shorten your thinking is being said for the benefit of the person saying it.

About the verdict on this pageEvery claim panel on this site ends with one of five published verdicts, and every verdict tag is set in the same colour so that the colour can never read as a score. The full vocabulary is published in our editorial standards. No payment of any kind can influence a verdict.

Money, fourth

13. What is the total cost of everything you are recommending, including maintenance, per year? Use the method to convert whatever you are told into a comparable figure.

14. What happens to unused sessions if I stop, move away or am told I am no longer suitable? Get this in writing before paying.

Failure, last and most important

15. What is your written policy if I am not satisfied, and can I have a copy before I pay a deposit? The answer to this question, more than any other, tells you what kind of business you are dealing with. A written policy that exists before the money moves is a completely different situation from a conversation about goodwill afterwards.

Candidacy

The five that matter most, if you only ask five

  • What would make you decline to treat me?
  • Which tissue is producing what I am unhappy about, and does this treatment act on that tissue?
  • What is the total cost of everything you are recommending, including maintenance, per year?
  • What happens in the twelve months after the course if I have no further treatment?
  • What is your written policy if I am not satisfied, and can I have it before I pay a deposit?

Ask them by email before the appointment where you can. Answers given in writing, without pressure, are more reliable than answers given in a room, and having them in writing is useful later if anything goes wrong.

Reading the answers

Three responses are worth treating as answers in themselves.

A discount. If a question about outcomes or refunds is met with a reduction in price, the business has told you that the price is a lever rather than a value.

A deadline. If the offer changes because you did not decide today, the deadline was constructed for that purpose. There is no clinical reason for urgency in this category.

A compliment. If a question about candidacy is answered with a remark about how you will look afterwards, the assessment has been replaced with flattery.

None of these require you to be rude or confrontational. You can simply say that you will think about it and leave. The offer will still exist next week, and if it does not, you have learned what it was.

The default position

Decline to buy at the first appointment, and say so when you book it. This single decision neutralises every pressure technique described anywhere on this site, costs nothing, and is the closest thing to a consumer protection that currently exists in a sector with no licensing scheme in force.

No commercial links on this page

This article contains no commercial links of any kind. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements, and no links to any clinic, practitioner, device manufacturer, brand or retailer. Nobody paid for it, nobody previewed it and nobody outside the editorial team saw it before publication.

This publication does not name, rank, rate or review any clinic or practitioner, because it has assessed none of them. Our funding is set out in full on the about page and on the provider listings page, including what we refuse to sell at any price.

Nothing here is medical advice. Speak to a qualified clinician about your own circumstances.

Sources

We cite regulators, legislation and clinical institutions, and we link them so that you can check the current position yourself. We do not link to clinics or to device manufacturers. Regulation in this field changes, so the primary source is always better than our summary of it.

  • NHSPatient information on cosmetic procedures, including the questions to ask and the risks to weigh before agreeing to anything.https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cosmetic-procedures/
  • General Medical CouncilThe regulator for doctors in the United Kingdom, holding a free public register and publishing standards including guidance for doctors offering cosmetic interventions.https://www.gmc-uk.org/
  • Nursing and Midwifery CouncilThe regulator for nurses and midwives in the United Kingdom, holding a free public register.https://www.nmc.org.uk/
  • Joint Council for Cosmetic PractitionersA voluntary register and standards body for non-surgical cosmetic practitioners in the United Kingdom.https://www.jccp.org.uk/
  • Consumer Rights Act 2015The legislation governing services supplied to consumers, including the requirement that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/contents

Frequently asked questions

What is the single most useful question?

What would make you decline to treat me. A practitioner who can describe the people they turn away is describing a clinical assessment. One who cannot describe anybody is describing a shop, and that is worth knowing before any discussion of technology.

Should I ask these in person or by email?

By email before the appointment where possible. Answers given in writing, without the pressure of a room, are more reliable, you keep a record that is useful if anything goes wrong later, and clinics that respond well to written questions tend to be the ones operating carefully.

What if they respond with a discount?

Then the business has told you that its price is a lever rather than a value, and that a question about outcomes was heard as a question about affordability. That is an answer, and it is a reason to leave rather than to negotiate.

How do I check a practitioner's registration?

Registration numbers are checkable free on the public registers of the healthcare regulators, including the GMC for doctors and the NMC for nurses. Voluntary registers such as the JCCP can also be checked. Ask for the full registered name and number, and check it yourself rather than accepting a screenshot.

Is it rude to ask all of this?

No, and a well run clinic expects it. Every question here concerns ordinary facts about how the business operates. The reaction is at least as informative as the answer, which is why the list is worth using even when you are fairly sure of the response.

What is the simplest protection?

Declining to buy at the first appointment, stated when you book it. Every pressure technique in this sector depends on a decision being made in the room. Removing that removes all of them at once, and it costs nothing at all.

When the rules change, we will tell you

One email when a regulatory position shifts in a way that alters what you should check, when a published advertising ruling changes what this sector may claim, and when a new article goes up. No treatment offers, no discounts and no clinic suggestions, because we do not make any.

Sponsor lineThe newsletter may carry one clearly labelled sponsor line, placed after the editorial content. Sponsors see it when you do, and no payment of any kind can influence a claim verdict on this site. The rate is published on the provider listings page.