Last Updated: June 16th, 2022 by
The medical field is full of professionals focused on different parts of human health. For example, medical estheticians focus on treating and improving patients’ skin, in particular.
You’ll learn everything you need to know about how to become a medical esthetician in this guide. As you continue reading, you’ll discover what medical estheticians do on a daily basis, as well as what it takes to become one and how much the job pays.
Visit our Career Guide for a list of all our job insights for an in depth look at the new career path you are considering.
Job Description
As a medical esthetician, you’ll specialize in skincare delivered in medical settings.
Your job includes consulting patients on how they can improve their skin condition. These patients could be struggling with medical conditions that affect their skin or are just looking to improve how they look.
Your job will also require you to educate patients on caring for their skin at home. You can do that by recommending products to use or improving their nutrition to benefit their skin.
Day to day, you’ll assist doctors at the clinic to assess patients’ skin conditions and maintain records of any treatments carried out.
While you will provide some treatments independently, you will also have to support doctors as they perform more complex procedures, like those involving surgeries.
Read More: How to Become an Immunologist. Work with the human immune system and its ailments in this medical career.
What Does an Average Day for a Medical Esthetician Look Like?
You can learn a lot about how to become a medical esthetician by seeing what one does daily.
So, here’s what an average day might look like for you as a medical esthetician:
Prepare and Review Patient Records
As a medical esthetician, you’re more likely to work with patients who have appointments rather than walk-ins.
So, your day begins with checking your schedule to know which patients are coming in, so you can prepare and review their patient records.
That way, you’ll understand the patient’s condition even before you meet them and can provide faster treatment.
Evaluate Client’s Esthetic Needs
When you meet patients throughout the day, you’ll have to evaluate their skin conditions. Some might not suffer from any particular disease. Instead, they’re looking to improve the look and health of their skin, particularly around the face.
However, for other patients, you’ll need to evaluate their status, such as whether or not they’re responding to treatments and improving.
You may or may not do this alongside a physician. For example, a dermatologist might perform the evaluation with your assistance.
Read our related article on How to Become a Dermatologist Assistant. Discover this role, how to pursue it, and more!
Educate Patients About Skincare Routines and Products
Every patient is unique, and so is their skin. That’s why part of your daily job is to educate patients on how to take better care of their skin, especially if they’re recovering from specific ailments.
That advice can include skincare routines that they can practice at home. On top of that, you might also recommend specific products or additional treatments that might be useful to them.
Nutrition also plays a key role. For example, your advice could help patients understand that what they eat also affects how their skin might look.
Deliver Esthetic Treatments
Even though you’ll perform some tasks independently, you’ll still work alongside a physician like a dermatologist or plastic surgeon. They will order treatments that you will have to carry out on patients.
You’ll likely perform essential treatments without supervision, like some injections, chemical peels, and specific hair removal treatments.
However, you’ll work closely with other medical professionals to assist with more complex procedures, such as those that involve surgeries.
In those cases, your role is to support physicians and surgeons to ensure that the patient receives the best esthetic care possible.
Support Physicians and Other Medical Professionals as Needed
Generally speaking, your day is spent supporting the physician leading the medical team you’re a part of. Depending on where you’re working, that could be anyone from a dermatologist to a plastic surgeon.
However, it’s also crucial to remember that, as a medical esthetician, you could work in a wide range of other medical departments. That will also decide what kind of patients you interact with and the conditions you’ll help treat.
For example, you might work alongside an oncologist to help cancer patients. As a side effect of their treatments, cancer patients suffer from skin rashes, dryness, and other issues that you will help to treat as a medical esthetician.
Process for Becoming a Medical Esthetician
Learning how to become a medical esthetician will require some post-secondary education, but you don’t necessarily need a degree to get started.
Here’s what the process will look like for you on your journey to become a medical esthetician:
1. High School
Your journey to become a medical esthetician can start as early as when you’re in high school. The Illinois Worknet Center highlights that you can take electives like cosmetology if you’re interested in becoming an esthetician later on.
But remember: medical estheticians work in healthcare environments treating more advanced skin conditions.
So, you might also find other high school courses helpful like:
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Nutrition
- Anything health-related
2. Post-Secondary Education
You don’t necessarily need a bachelor’s degree after high school to become a medical esthetician.
Instead, most medical estheticians pursue an accredited esthetician degree, certificate, or related qualification.
You can do so at post-secondary education institutions like:
- Medical esthetician schools
- Two-year colleges
- Cosmetology schools
The process that you’ll go through to get your qualification will involve some classroom learning. These sessions will focus on the theoretical aspects of your work, such as understanding basic clinical practices and esthetic procedures.
However, the course will focus more on practical and hands-on training. That is done to help you develop the hands-on skills you will later need to work directly with clinical patients.
The medical esthetician course you take should have accreditation by one of the following agencies:
- Council on Occupational Education (COE)
- National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS)
- Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC)
- Accrediting Council for Continued Education & Training (ACCET)
3. Hands-On Experience
Your job search will go a lot smoother if you have hands-on experience in the field, particularly of working in clinical settings.
So, you can choose to volunteer, intern, or take on entry-level roles in clinics where other medical estheticians work.
Doing so will look good to employers on your CV. However, that kind of experience also makes it easier for you to adjust to a clinical environment when you land your first job.
4. Licensing and Certifications
There are no licenses specifically for medical estheticians. However, you will need to obtain a license by the National Interstate Council of State Boards of Cosmetology, only if your state requires it.
Some states might also have different procedures and licensing structures. For example, Washington and Virginia have a two-tiered licensing system that allows you to progress higher, even after you’ve gotten your initial license.
5. Further Advancement
Once you become a medical esthetician, there is plenty of room for advancement. You can pursue advanced training and certification in delivering specialized treatments like:
- Microdermabrasion
- Electric current treatments
- Radiofrequency treatments
- Chemical peels
- Traditional medicine like Ayurveda treatments
Read More: How to Become a Medical Scribe. We explore this career path including salary expectations, education requirements, daily tasks, and more.
Are You Suited for a Medical Esthetician Career? Skills, Credentials, Tools and Technology
Learning how to become a medical esthetician will require you to have or develop a specific set of traits and proficiencies. Having the correct ones will help you grow and succeed in the long run, ensuring that you get the best out of your career.
Here are some of the most important personality traits, skills, and proficiencies that will take you a long way as a medical esthetician.
Personality and Skills
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) points out that you must have customer service, self-grooming, and time management skills to work as a medical esthetician.
Firstly, your work will require you to interact with patients very closely. Having customer service skills will help you interact with patients, manage their expectations and make them feel comfortable around you.
At the same time, that physical closeness you share with patients also requires you to have excellent self-grooming skills. That includes personal hygiene and an overall professional image that will make patients feel at ease when you deliver treatments.
Lastly, you’re likely to treat multiple patients throughout the day. Your time management skills will minimize delays and ensure that each patient receives the attention they need from you.
Credentials and Proficiencies
Remember: as a medical esthetician, you’ll work alongside medical professionals in healthcare facilities to treat patients.
As such, you must have proficiencies in basic clinical skills, dermatology, and esthetic procedures and equipment.
So, your proficiencies must include basic clinical skills. Understanding basic clinical skills will allow you to maintain hygiene and cleanliness standards in everything that you do.
Besides that, your work relates to the skin and the many conditions that can affect it. So, basic proficiency in dermatology will be crucial for your job.
Lastly, being proficient in esthetic procedures and equipment is required for this job. You’ll develop some of that proficiency as you pursue your education and training.
However, you’ll gain expertise the more hands-on experience you gain on the job.
How Does a Medical Esthetician Find Work?
As you go through learning how to become a medical esthetician, you’ll experience many similarities with non-medical estheticians.
However, one significant difference between both career paths is in where you can find work as a medical esthetician.
The Cortiva Institute points out that medical estheticians like you can find work in places more inclined towards medicine and healthcare like:
- Hospitals
- Rehabilitation Clinics
- Medical Spas
- Dermatologist Practices
- Plastic Surgery Practices
- Oncology Departments
In these environments, you’ll work with patients independently and as part of a physician’s team.
For example, the physician you work with could be a dermatologist helping patients with skin conditions, a plastic surgeon carrying out elective surgeries, or even an oncologist treating skin cancers.
Medical Esthetician Job Search Tips
When looking for a job, it’s best to search the area where you’d like to work. Once you identify potential employers, you can check their official websites for any medical aesthetics job openings.
Even if there are no current openings, you can still try to reach those employers via email or phone to express your interest in any future job openings they might have.
Try your best to submit a copy of your resume or CV for them to keep on file. That way, they’ll know your qualifications and how to contact you if they want to recruit you in the future.
What is the Average Salary of a Medical Esthetician?
Before deciding to learn how to become a medical esthetician, you’ll want to know how much the role can reward you financially.
A skincare specialist (including medical estheticians) can expect to earn $41,230 a year. That’s according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), whose data groups all skincare specialists together.
The same data also shows us that:
- The top 90th percentile earns $64,610 a year, and
- The bottom 10th percentile earns $22,850 a year
Where Do Medical Estheticians Make the Most Money?
The same data by the BLS also shows skincare specialists can earn more in some states than others.
So, you can expect a higher average salary in states like:
- Colorado: $58,480
- Washington: $56,940
- Hawaii: $54,450
- Connecticut: $52,740
- Oklahoma: $52,510
How Do I Earn More as a Medical Esthetician?
The best way to increase your earning potential as a medical esthetician is to invest in your professional skills.
That can include further training on specific medical esthetic procedures and specialized equipment, such as cryosurgery equipment and microdermabrasion machines.
You can also diversify your skillset by pursuing training in traditional methods of esthetic care.
For example, some places you might work might also offer patients Ayurvedic skin treatments based on traditional Indian practices. Training and certification in areas like these could make you more valuable to employers.
Lastly, you can also demonstrate more value to your employers by keeping up to date with the latest advancements in your field.
Medical Esthetician Job Growth
It’s safe to say that the field for medical estheticians is growing significantly.
A good point of reference would be the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)’s data on the field for all skincare specialists, which estimates a growth of 29% until 2030.
By the BLS’s standards, that growth rate is ‘much faster than average’. So, it’s certainly worth investing the time and effort to learn how to become a medical esthetician for you and anyone else interested in the field.
What’s the Difference Between an Esthetician and a Medical Esthetician?
Generally, estheticians and medical estheticians are professionally trained to help people with their skin conditions. Both types of professionals work with people who might not have any skin problems but want to improve how they look.
Of course, they also help people treat skin conditions and disorders that affect them.
However, you should understand the distinct differences between these two career paths before choosing one or the other.
By choosing to learn how to become a medical esthetician, here is how your career will differ from estheticians:
- Where you’ll work: Estheticians work in places where they provide skincare and other esthetic services to customers. However, being a medical esthetician means working in medical or healthcare facilities like hospitals and clinics.
- Who you’ll work for: Estheticians work for skincare businesses that serve customers. As a medical esthetician, you’ll work closely alongside medical professionals like dermatologists and plastic surgeons, to name a few.
- The treatments you’ll deliver: Another significant difference is the types of treatments you’ll provide. For example, you’ll work with patients who have suffered burns and other traumas to the skin, requiring much more intensive and specialized treatments.
- Your level of education and training: Unlike estheticians, you’ll work in healthcare facilities. That means you’ll have to undergo additional training to work in those environments, such as those related to hygiene and sanitation in healthcare environments.
Professional Associations
Throughout your journey to learn how to become a medical esthetician, you must build relationships in the industry.
Those relationships can lead you to mentorship opportunities and chances to share experiences with other professionals in your fields.
You can build those relationships by participating in professional associations like:
The American Association of Aesthetic Medicine and Surgery (AAAMS)
The American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine
American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology & Aesthetic Surgery
Aesthetic Multispecialty Society (AMS)
Top Colleges and Universities
After high school, you can learn how to become a medical esthetician at various two-year colleges, cosmetology schools, or institutions that provide medical esthetician courses.
Some of the top schools in this field include:
