How to choose a skin doctor in Chennai

1. Check the qualification, not the title

"Skin specialist", "cosmetologist" and "aesthetician" are not protected terms in India — anyone can use them. A dermatologist holds MBBS followed by a postgraduate qualification in dermatology, usually MD (Dermatology, Venereology & Leprosy) or DNB (Dermatology). A DDVL diploma is also a recognised dermatology qualification.

Weekend certification courses in lasers or fillers exist and are widely advertised. They are not a substitute for a dermatology postgraduate degree, particularly for procedures that break the skin or use energy devices.

2. Verify Tamil Nadu Medical Council registration

Every practising doctor in Tamil Nadu holds a registration number with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council. You are entitled to ask for it, and it can be checked against the council's register and the National Medical Commission's national register.

A clinic that hesitates to share a registration number is telling you something useful.

3. Ask who performs the procedure

In many clinics the consultation is with a doctor but the laser or injectable is delivered by a technician. That is not automatically wrong — but you should know before you book, because it changes who is accountable if something goes wrong.

Ask directly: "Will the doctor perform this personally, or a therapist?" and "Who reviews me if I have a reaction?"

4. Ask about settings for your skin type

Most Indian patients are Fitzpatrick type IV or V. Laser and energy settings validated on lighter skin can cause burns and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation on deeper skin tones.

A good answer sounds like: "We use a longer wavelength for deeper skin tones, we patch test first, and we start conservative and titrate up." A worrying answer is: "Same settings for everyone."

5. Judge the consultation, not the marketing

A sound consultation includes an examination, a diagnosis stated in plain language, the realistic number of sessions, what the treatment cannot do, and the side effects and downtime. If you are quoted a package price before anyone has examined your skin, that is a sales process rather than a clinical one.

Be cautious of guaranteed results, "permanent" claims, and pressure to pay for a multi-session package on the first visit.

Questions worth asking before you book

What is your dermatology qualification and registration number? · Who performs this procedure? · How many sessions will I realistically need? · What are the side effects for my skin type? · What happens if I react badly? · What does the treatment not fix? · Is there a written plan and consent form?

6. Watch for the willingness to say no

This is the most reliable signal there is, and it costs the clinic money every time it happens — which is exactly why it is worth so much.

A real assessment produces a sequence, and sequences contain refusals. Control the acne before treating the scars. Not this month, your skin is too recently sun-exposed. That will not work on hair that colour. You do not need filler for this; you need a different sunscreen and eight weeks. Nothing at all is required here — come back if it changes.

A consultation that ends with everything on offer being suitable for you is not a diagnosis. Watch, too, for treatment proposed for something you did not come in about. Being told your jawline needs work when you came about pigmentation is a sales technique, not a clinical finding.

What you should leave with

A plan you can read at home, with nobody watching you read it. It should name the diagnosis in plain language, the proposed treatment, how many sessions are expected and over what period, what the whole course costs rather than the first visit, what maintenance is likely afterwards, and what happens if you stop halfway.

It should name the risks honestly and specifically for your skin — the risks of laser, peels and injectables are not identical across skin tones, and a clinic that cannot discuss that difference has not thought about you. Ask what the realistic outcome looks like, and what it looks like if you do nothing at all. Both answers are useful.

Then the unglamorous questions that separate careful clinics from confident ones. Do you patch test, and how long before you review it? Are needles and cannulas single-use and opened in front of me? Can I see the product box and its expiry before it is used? Who do I call at nine in the evening if something looks wrong, and what does it cost me if a complication needs managing? Consent should be written, taken before payment rather than after, and it should be possible to leave without paying anything at all.

Red flags, and what they usually mean

A discount that expires today. A deposit requested before a diagnosis exists. A course of ten sold before a course of one has been tried. Reluctance to put the plan or the total cost in writing. A treatment described as permanent, or a result described as guaranteed — neither is a claim anyone can substantiate, and both tell you the clinic is comfortable saying things it cannot support.

Machines nobody will name, or names offered so quickly that nobody can explain why that wavelength suits your skin. No patch test. No mention of who performs the treatment. Before-and-after photographs used as a promise of your result rather than an example of someone else's, or photographs so heavily edited that lighting has done most of the work. Pressure of any kind, including the friendly sort.

Reviews deserve a sceptical eye too. Fifty identical five-star lines say considerably less than one detailed account of a complication that was handled properly. Ask directly what happens when a treatment does not go to plan; every honest clinic has had that conversation before, and the ones that answer smoothly and specifically are the ones that have.

Apply all of this to us as well. Ask who is assessing you, what our qualification is and where it is registered, what we will not treat, what your plan costs in full, and what we do if something reacts. If the answers are not straight, you have your information — and if they are, you have something a discount cannot buy.

Frequently asked