Beware of deals on injectables or other skin care products that are too good to be true.

You see an incredible promotion offering a very low price for Botox, Juvederm, or other fillers. It sounds almost too good to be true and many times it may be. There have been reports of Physicians purchasing injectables or other fillers on the gray market in order to offer low prices. The gray market may refer to products originally manufactured by an approved company in the United States but exported abroad and then later ILLEGALLY imported back into the country. The gray market may also include counterfeit products as well. The illegality of the process may create serious patient safety issues as the products by-pass the regulations design to safe guard the American public.

Some of the dangers of by-passing authorized distribution channels are:

• the products are manufactured counterfeit products
• the products may have been manufactured properly but are now expired
• the products may have been manufactured properly but are mishandled or not stored properly
• the products may have been manufactured properly but are diluted or otherwise compromised

 
The first two items are very clear. Counterfeit products may not be effective and worse they may actually be dangerous. A counterfeit product may also contain toxic chemicals. There is very little incentive for a counterfeiter to care about the end user.

The product may be genuine but has expired and lost it potency leaving the patient disappointed with the results.

Some products need to avoid excessive sunlight such as Vitamin C or need to be refrigerated to maintain its potency such as Botox once it is reconstituted. Failure to safeguard the products during distribution process may decrease the potency and the actual results the patient expects

A product may be diluted so that the patient is receiving less product than expected even though the volume looks correct. Once again, patient results may be disappointing.

Truffles Medispa scrupulously orders products from authorized distributors and avoids the gray market. We do this to maintain our patient’s trust which we work hard to earn.

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