Why are laser treatments so expensive?

I agree with Ms. Haney's opinion. Also, in a decent laser practice one needs multiple laser machines for different treatments. When one is providing customized non-surgical treatments, it takes a lot of skill and cost to provide consistently good results.

I hope this helps.

I would agree with Ms. Haney's analysis, with one caveat. Surgery isn't always more expensive than laser treatments. Most laser treatments require multiple treatments to obtain the desired results. Though each treatment may only be several hundred dollars, the total cost of all treatments will be several thousand dollars.

Given that these treatments occur over a period of time, the time investment must also be taken into account. For this same amount money - or possibly slightly more - and the same amount of time commitment, definitive surgery could have been done.

Surgery is not always the answer and sometimes laser treatments can be just as good. It is important to research the procedures you are considering and get the opinion of a practioner who has several treatment options in his bag of tricks. If a surgeon is able to offer you surgery or laser treatments, it is in his best interest to offer the treatment which would produce the best results. Alternatively if you only get the opinion of someone who is only able to offer one treatment option, they may not know the results that can be achieved with other modalities.

My experience is that the pricing is directly related to the cost of goods. Lasers can run over $100,000 and there are many that also have consumable hardware. The maintenance and service contracts cost money as well. At Calidora, only licensed medical practitioners perform any of our treatments so the labor cost may be a little higher than a setting where laser technicians are performing treatments.

Some of the treatments are not that expensive. We run specials all the time for laser hair removal. We offer discounts on packages of multiple treatments. We offer pay for four and get the fifth treatment free.

For the results, there are many laser services that are quite reasonable as an alternative to an invasive procedure.

I'm surprised we aren't asked this question more often. There are several contributing factors that determine pricing of laser treatments.

• First, in California, class IV medical lasers cannot be used by anyone other than a Registered Nurse or Physician.

Because only registered medical professionals can use lasers the cost of the wages for the persons that perform the procedures is high. The salary of a licensed medical person is considerably different than that of a technician or esthetician.

• A second contributing factor to the cost of laser treatment is the cost of lasers themselves.

Lasers can cost between $60,000 and $150,000 so it takes a lot of treatments to pay these equipment costs off. The technology is ever-evolving and quite advanced. Laser equipment is quite sensitive and costly to maintain and/or repair. A preventative maintenance contract for one laser may run over $15k per year.

• A third factor is the cost associated with malpractice insurance.

We live in a very litigous society and the cost of protecting oneself from lawsuits is high. The cost of aquiring patients is high because the market for cosmetic procedures is competitive. Although most practices stay healthy through referral business, most do maintain some form of advertising budget to attract new customers. The cost of patient acquisition does contribute to the total cost of the procedures.

Often, we receive calls from consumers shopping around for the lowest price. We remind them that, although cost is important, results and safety are what keeps our patients coming back.

The comment that "laser treatments are almost as expensive as surgery"...seems like quite an over-statement, as any surgical procedure in a surgical setting will always be far more expensive.