Questions You Need to Ask Before Signing Up
Don't be shy or embarrassed about asking questions and insisting on answers, even if a doctor or his/her staff seem busy. In the medical world, we're obligated to discuss the nature, goals, alternatives, course, predictions, risks and complications of a proposed service or product.General questions to ask are mostly common sense ones. Products can irritate you, give you an allergic reaction, work too well or simply not work at all.
Services are a bit more complex. Anything can happen during any type of treatment to anybody. That said, it's reassuring that disasters are almost unheard of. For example, it's safer to have anesthesia or fly in an airplane than to drive in your car. Knowing that, do you stop driving? No. You weigh the risk versus the benefit and then proceed ahead.
Ask your doctor or staff how many treatments might be needed in the near and distant future. Find out about costs both in terms of money and time off from activities.
Find out how many treatments the doctor has done. Ask about how he/she deals with expected and unexpected problems. Ask how many problems with the proposed treatment he/she has had.
Listen closely not only to his/her words but his/her tone of voice. Feel right about things before signing up.
Common and expected occurrences after any small or large treatment are swelling, nausea, tolerable discomfort, sun sensitivity and restriction in activities. Experience helps us help you with these.
Known and fortunately rare occurences are unacceptable discomfort during or after treatment, infection with a bacteria or virus, a psychological adjustment problem, disappointing or incomplete results, prolonged swelling, a rash, bleeding, unusual scarring, skin color change, nerve or blood vessel injury, tissue or hair loss, blood clots or pneumonia, or compromise of some organ. In today's modern medical world, standards of care are established that fortunately keep the impact of such occurences to a minimum.
