In hair salons, neighborhood departments and unlicensed offices, thousands of Argentines undergo procedures every day that should only be performed in doctors’ offices. Facial fillers, rhinomodeling, biostimulators and lip augmentation applied by cosmetologists, cosmeticians and people without medical registration constitute one of the most widespread and least regulated phenomena in the Argentine health system. The medical specialist Cintia Burgos is one of the most active voices in the fight against this parallel market.
The Argentine Society of Dermatology receives complaints daily: colleagues who report hair salons where they do permanent hair removal, cosmetologists who apply fillers in private departments. The phenomenon has a technical name: medical intrusion. And its scope is difficult to quantify precisely because it occurs clandestinely. Hair salons, gyms, apartments and garages, makeup salons in beauty centers, operate without adequate health control and put people’s health in check.
Burgos has been using his social networks, interviews and training spaces for years to warn about this risk. His diagnosis coincides with that of much of the organized medical system: it is increasingly common to see people without medical training perform invasive procedures that, by law, should only be carried out by licensed and trained professionals. “Aesthetic medicine is not just about applying a product. It works on anatomy, blood vessels and delicate structures of the face where poor practice can generate very serious consequences,” they maintain from the specialist’s environment.
Medical intrusion in the field of aesthetics has become an everyday phenomenon: treatments such as facial fillers or lip augmentation are offered in hair salons, beauty centers or even between manicures, spaces where there is clearly no medical support. This is also noted by Dr. Oscar Marinacci, a specialist in plastic surgery, who describes the situation as “truly absurd and an act of unconsciousness.” The problem is aggravated because the patient often confuses the title of doctor with a specialization in aesthetics, and that is where the real risk begins.
The legal framework is clear but its compliance is lax. Any procedure that crosses the skin barrier—injecting substances such as fillers, rich plasma, or performing mesotherapy—must be performed in authorized medical offices. Cosmetologists and cosmiatricians can only work as assistants in these procedures, where the responsibility corresponds to the doctor who coordinates the team. However, the absence of effective controls enables a market that operates in plain sight.
One of the factors that drives demand is price. Patients come attracted by misleading advertising, promises of magical, immediate, risk-free and low-cost results. Together with the lack of a specific control body, this favors the carrying out of procedures in sites not accredited or endorsed by a competent authority. What does not appear in these promotions are the possible consequences.
Complications can be serious and irreversible. Synthetic fillers can be toxic, act as a foreign body and induce immune reactions, granulomas, infections, fibrosis and permanent deformities. Although rare, transient or permanent blindness and cerebrovascular emboli are among the most devastating complications of forehead injections. In the event of an emergency of this type, a person without medical training not only does not know how to act: they also do not have the medicines or the knowledge to reverse the damage.
The problem is not limited to who applies the product, but also to what product it is applied. The ANMAT has repeatedly detected and prohibited the circulation of supplies without health registration in beauty centers. In 2023, the agency prohibited the use, distribution and marketing of a brand of hyaluronic acid found in a beauty center for lacking the mandatory registrations. The product, manufactured in China, did not declare a responsible importer in Argentina nor did it appear in the National Registry of Medical Technology Producers and Products. It was not an isolated case: in 2024, a Buenos Aires criminal prosecutor’s office intervened in a procedure that led to the seizure of multiple products without manufacturer information or responsible for importing them into the country.
Faced with this scenario, Burgos promotes sustained awareness campaigns: verifying that the person performing the procedure is a licensed doctor, that the products used have approval from ANMAT, and that the space where they work is enabled. The message is simple but difficult to install in a market that sells instant transformations at clearance prices. The absence of regulation can motivate the unethical or scientific exploitation of aesthetic medical practices, primarily motivated by the profit motive of those who promote or practice them.
Burgos’s position is neither a solitary crusade nor a union dispute. It is, above all, a health warning: behind each treatment there is a medical act. And a poorly executed medical act can cost your face, your eyesight or your life.
by RN
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