(NOTE: Part 3 has been posted with regard to Lasercare Leicester in an above post)
Part 4
Bodysmooth
Bodysmooth is a cosmetic clinic located near Oxford Circus tube station. It’s located in a bustling, busy area of good ol’ London town and is located on the sixth floor of an inconspicious building. I would like to point out that this is the only clinic I approached which bothered to respond by e-mail and not only was the e-mail friendly and informative, it inspired confidence and trust in the BodySmooth name. After my disasterous experience at Lasercare Leicester, I decided that with Bare Necessity and various other clinics out of the question, Bodysmooth was my only real option (I haven’t covered the Harley Medical Group but will do in due course–needless to say it’s sweet and to the point!)
As I had already received a test patch from an nd: yag laser, I presumed I would not need a further test patch with a different brand of nd: yag laser. The head laser nurse at BodySmooth concurred, though she would only proceed with treatment if I was to sign a consent form on the day of treatment. Thus I decided that with a safe result from my test patch at Lasercare Leicester, I would book in for a full back treatment at Bodysmooth afer an inital consultation.
And the rest? Oh dear.
First of all the clinic is located, as noted, on the sixth floor of an inconspicious building in a fairly cramped enviroment. I was greeted by a fairly humourless male receptionist who reminded me of the dull teacher from Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. I proceeded to fill in rudimentary forms and it was made clear, after I eavesdropped on the receptionist’s conversation, that the laser nurse was running 10 minutes behind schedule. No problem, I thought. I filled in the forms and awaited treatment.
I entered the laser room, some fifteen minutes after my promised time of eleven o clock, and was greeted by not one but two laser nurses. Well one qualified nurse and one nurse in training. The room was small and dominated by the operating table. I was informed the laser nurse was “in training” and I presumed she was present to witness the laser hair removal and consultation and thus felt at ease. The trained nurse was professional, polite and got down to it. She was definitely a step above the Lasercare Leicester nurse.
Now one of the main problems people have with Bodysmooth, it appears, is the £35 per 15 minutes charge. I was quoted 90 minutes for my back and ended up paying £204 as the lasering was finished under this presumed time limit. So this was a good thing but what was a BAD THING was who was doing the lasering.
Let me ask you was it the professional nurse, showing a trainee laser nurse how to do the lasering? Or was it the trainee nurse, on her own, being checked up on every 30 minutes or so.
I’m sad to report it was the trainee nurse who perfomed the treatment and she did so quite badly in that the skin was never really properly cooled before treatment and thus I ended up with a small area of hyperpigmentation and a treatment which bordered on torture for nearly an hour and a half. It felt like my skin was going through a sewing machine–it was quite horrendous.
What surprised me though was that the training nurse just left the trainee nurse to it which leads me to believe that patients are quite easy to use as practise. It’s my understanding that a nurse in training will always be someone who needs guidance and assitance and whose work, especially with LHR, needs to be over-looked.
That didn’t happen at Bodysmooth and though I feel the training nurse was certainly professional in all other aspects, it was her choice to leave the room and leave me in the hands of someone who needed to look up what pulse width and fluence to use in her training book (I kid you not) to perform woeful and very painful LHR on me.
And the machine was the Coolglide which is notorious for being painful anyway. Oh dear.
So my advice? If you wish to have LHR done at Bodysmooth stand your ground and insist that a trainee nurse is accompanied by a professional. Failing that just make sure the professional does the job.
I am going to write a letter of complaint to the appropriate authority and will inform you of my progress in a future post.
For the moment, I’m still looking for an alternative laser clinic for follow-up treatment.
In my experience? Bodysmooth?
Thumbs down.
In summary
website: http://www.bodysmooth.co.uk
lasers used: Lightsheer, Coolglide
consultation cost: free
test patch fee: free
prices - £35 per 15 minutes
Still to come: The Harley Street Group and - SHOCK! HORROR! - a return visit to another branch of Lasercare Clinics.
Part 5 coming soon!
[ April 24, 2004, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: Zambo ]