There is a particular kind of question that separates a clinical operation from a sales one. It is not a technical question. Technical questions are easy to answer impressively and hard for a patient to evaluate. The useful questions are administrative, boring, and impossible to improvise, because the answer either exists as a documented process or it does not exist at all.
What follows is twelve of them, with what a good answer sounds like. Ask them by email if that is easier. A written answer is more useful than a spoken one anyway.
Who, exactly
1. What is your full registered name and registration number, and which register? A good answer arrives in one line and can be checked in four minutes on a public register. A poor answer explains why the question is unusual. See how to run the check.
2. Will you personally carry out the procedure, and will you personally take my consent? A good answer is yes to both, or a clear explanation of who else is involved and when you will meet them. Consent taken by one person and treatment delivered by another is a structural problem, not a scheduling detail.
3. Who is prescribing, and will they assess me in person? This applies to any prescription only medicine, which includes botulinum toxin products. A good answer names a prescriber and confirms a face to face assessment. Anything vaguer is covered in our guide to remote prescribing.
What is going into me
4. What product will you use, and can I see the box and the batch number? A good answer names the product and shows you the packaging. This also matters for records: if you ever have a problem, the batch is part of the trail, and the MHRA's Yellow Card scheme wants it.
5. Where did it come from? A good answer is a named UK pharmaceutical wholesaler or pharmacy. It is a fair question because the alternative, product obtained through informal channels, is a real phenomenon rather than a hypothetical one.
6. Is it a medicine, a device, or neither? This sounds pedantic and is not. Botulinum toxin products are prescription only medicines. Most dermal fillers are regulated as devices rather than medicines, which changes what evidence had to exist before they were sold. See why that distinction matters.
What you are entitled to at this stage
- To ask any of these questions, in writing, before paying anything.
- To be told the product name and batch number of anything injected into you, and to have it recorded.
- To know who is clinically responsible out of hours and how to reach them.
- To a written statement of what a correction or complication would cost you.
- To decline treatment at any point without giving a reason.
None of this requires a confrontation. An email sent before booking gets you written answers and costs nothing.
When it goes wrong
7. What are the three most serious complications of this procedure, and what would you do about each? A good answer is specific, unhurried and slightly alarming. A provider who cannot name serious complications without prompting has either not thought about them or has decided not to mention them.
8. Do you keep hyaluronidase on site, and are you trained and insured to use it? For hyaluronic acid filler this is the single most revealing question available. It is about the ability to respond to a vascular occlusion urgently. Note the three parts: on site, trained, insured. Any of them missing is the answer.
9. Who do I call at 2am, and what is the actual response time? A good answer is a number that reaches a clinician, with a realistic time. An answer that involves a contact form or an inbox monitored during office hours is telling you what happens on a Friday night.
10. If I am unhappy with the result, what happens, and what does it cost me? A good answer distinguishes between a review appointment, a correction, and a reversal, and states who pays for each. Get it in writing. This question, asked before the deposit, resolves most of the disputes we hear about.
The business behind it
11. What is your indemnity arrangement, and does it cover this specific procedure? Indemnity is the mechanism by which a claim can actually be paid. A good answer names the provider and confirms the procedure is within cover. See why this matters.
12. What would make you refuse to treat me? This is the question most likely to produce silence. A good answer is immediate: unrealistic expectations, an unsuitable anatomy, signs of body dysmorphic disorder, a recent similar treatment elsewhere, a medical contraindication, or simply that the concern described would not be improved by the procedure. A provider who cannot describe anyone they would turn away is describing a shop.
Reassurance offered in place of an answer. If you ask what happens at 2am and the reply is that complications are extremely rare with their technique, you have not been answered. Ask again, once. The second evasion is conclusive.
Why the reaction matters more than the answer
A well run clinic has been asked all of this before. The answers exist in a policy document because insurers, regulators or common sense required them. Producing them is a matter of retrieval, not of composition, and the tone is usually mildly pleased that you asked.
A poorly run one experiences these questions as an accusation, because they are questions about infrastructure it does not have. The tell is not a wrong answer. It is a change of subject, a compliment, a reference to how many followers they have, an offer of a discount, or a suggestion that the questions are unusual. None of that is an answer, and all of it is information.
How to ask without a confrontation
Send them by email in advance, framed as preparation rather than interrogation. Something as flat as, before I book I always check a few practical things, would you mind confirming the following, removes the social tension entirely and produces a written record. Any provider comfortable with the answers will send them back within a day.
If nobody replies, that is also a reply, and it arrived before you paid anything.