Safe to Have Nurse Inject Restylane?

There are some nurses that have focused so much on injecting fillers, under the supervision of a doctor, that they develop better technique than the supervising doctor. These days, more doctors tend to do the injections. Fillers are not a cookie cutter treatment. There is an art and science to injecting fillers, and the technique improves with experience. Some injectors have a forceful hand and bruising and pain increase. Others are very gentle and give slow injections which can make it less painful and there might be less bruising as a result. These techniques can be learned by a nurse as readily as a doctor. Extremely reputable cosmetically-minded plastic surgeons have nurses performing these injections in their office and would not have them do it on their facelift patients if they were concerned that there would be a bad result.
One disadvantage of having a nurse do the fillers is that if you really like his or her treatment, they might change jobs to a different office and you would have to look for a new injector if you can't find them. If you have a doctor do your injections and you like their treatment, then you could follow them to any practice to which they transfer. Theoretically, if there is a complication, which is extraordinarily rare, the physician might be more readily able to deal with and treat the unexpected problem.

Hi Abby.  The answer to the question is certainly a personal preference.  In our practice we can only say that of all the injection patients that have come from other practices (because they were unhappy), there are as many that were injected by physicians as nurses.

Mastering injection techniques takes time and effort and whether the injector is a nurse, PA or physician, they need to dedicate the time and effort necessary to master these skills.  We would seek out a word of mouth referral for an injector that one of your friends or family trusts, regardless of the title.

Some practices have nurses inject Restylane and Botox. I think it is important that the nurse have adequate training and has on site physician supervision. If the plastic surgeon or dermatologist doesn't perform any injections, chances are he/she didn't train the nurse nor can they effectively supervise that nurse. This is in contrast to a busy plastic surgeon who has patient overflow and has a nurse inject patients that would otherwise have to wait weeks to be seen. A busy injector probably has good results and would be the right person to train their own nurse in the same techniques that they use. I think that the physician should remain on site when the nurse is injecting.
Laws regarding nurse injectors also vary from state to state.
Good luck!

While many surgeons do their own injections of botulinum toxins and filler products, there are many very experienced nurse injectors. Laws vary by the state on who is qualified to inject these products. The requirements for supervision also vary.

As you can see there is a range of opinions on the subject of whether a nurse or a physician should do Restylane injections, and no single correct answer. If you go to a clinic where the nurse injectors specialize in that, then they may very well be more experienced than the supervising physician, and other MD's for that matter. It should always be clear who the delegating physician is, and what their qualifications are.