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Medical spas are increasingly mainstream in Polk County, with two multi-specialty clinics becoming the latest to offer cosmetic procedures in new facilities that combine medicine and makeovers.
“We’re trying to do a total women’s experience,” said Dr. Vincent Gatto, one of Bond’s obstetricians, although he quickly added that men can get massage, facials and other treatments, too.
Note to modest men: The aesthetics area has a different entrance and waiting room than obstetrics.
Watson Clinic’s list of upcoming services at its medical spa, scheduled to open in February, will include facials, microdermabrasions, chemical peels, permanent and airbrush makeup, light therapy and body wraps.
Jilian Motyl, a medical aesthetician, will manage the spa and the new building containing it. She said the spa and treatment rooms will combine a quiet, relaxing atmosphere with the latest medical technology. In addition to the spa, which will have a separate entrance, the building will house some Watson Clinic dermatologists and ear-nose-and-throat specialists who do facial plastic surgeries. That lets patients get a full range of services – from beauty creams to mini facelifts – at the same building.
“You really do have to have that,” said Dr. Raam Lakhani, ear-nose-and-throat/facial plastic surgery specialist at Watson Clinic. “Patients come to expect (both types of treatment) as part of their cosmetic care.”
The list of services for both clinics’ programs is longer than the ones listed above. Their entry into supplying those services has meant added competition for local dermatologists, some of whom have provided medical facial care here for years.
They too mix elective cosmetic procedures with more standard medical care. A few examples:
Parisian peels, Botox Cosmetic and other services are listed in Dr. David Murray’s Lakeland Dermatology ads, along with treatment for skin cancer, growths and other diseases of the skin.
Botox and fillers like Restylane, used for filling in smile lines and wrinkles, appear along with skin-cancer screenings in an ad for Dr. Marci L. Pepine’s Adult and Pediatric Dermatology of Central Florida.
Likewise, in Winter Haven and Sebring, Dr. Michael J. Rogers lists microdermabrasion and peels along with skin cancer care and surgery.
Some other facial plastic surgeons also provide some nonsurgical cosmetic procedures in addition to their standard surgeries.
Dr. Robert Merritt of Barranco Clinic said that clinic’s doctors do Botox regularly and some other injection procedures, but only a limited amount of microdermabrasions.
That procedure, popular in spas and medical practices, involves using light abrasion to remove dead outer layers of skin.
Dermatologists in Tampa have seen medical spas come and go, said Dr. Neil Fenske, who heads the University of South Florida College of Medicine’s dermatology and cutaneous surgery program.
But the expanded programs at Watson Clinic and Bond are long-planned efforts by established medical groups, reflecting their belief that the growing presence of these facial and laser treatments is more than a temporary fad.
Some procedures must be done by physicians, but others are done by aestheticians. Those non-medical employees fall under the Board of Cosmetology in the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. That’s separate from the Department of Health, which regulates doctors.
Bond Clinic Women’s Health Center/ Bond Aesthetics will have an open house from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at 199 Ave. B N.W. in Winter Haven. .
Watson Clinic will have an open house from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 6, with a 10:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting, at its new building at 1755 N. Florida Ave., North Florida Avenue and Bella Vista Street.
