Where to report
Five official channels handle complaints about aesthetic treatment in the United States, and they handle different things. Sending a complaint to the wrong one costs weeks. This page states what each channel can act on and, just as usefully, what it cannot.
If this is happening now
A complaint route is not medical care. Sudden or severe pain during or after an injection, skin that turns white, grey, mottled or dusky, any change in vision, or difficulty swallowing or breathing are described in the medical literature as signs clinicians treat as emergencies. Seek emergency medical care immediately — in the United States, by calling 911 or going to an emergency department. Report it afterwards.
State medical and nursing boards
They handle: the conduct and licensing of an individual practitioner — a physician, physician assistant, nurse practitioner or registered nurse — and, in many states, whether the supervision arrangement behind a treatment was lawful. A board can investigate, discipline, restrict a licence or revoke one.
They cannot: award you money, act against a business that has no licensed practitioner attached to it, or generally act quickly. Board proceedings run on a timescale of months.
Boards are organised by state and each has its own complaint form. The Federation of State Medical Boards maintains a directory of physician boards at fsmb.org/contact-a-state-medical-board. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing maintains the equivalent for nursing boards at ncsbn.org/contact-bon.htm. Complain to the board that licenses the person who treated you, in the state where it happened.
FDA MedWatch
It handles: problems with a product — an adverse reaction to a drug such as a botulinum toxin, a problem with a device such as a laser or a radiofrequency system, a suspected counterfeit, a product that appears mislabelled, or an injury a device caused. Members of the public can file directly; a report does not have to come from a clinician.
It cannot: discipline the person who treated you, resolve a billing dispute, or tell you what happened to your report. What it does is add a data point to the surveillance system regulators use to spot a pattern.
That last point matters more than it sounds. MedWatch reporting is voluntary, so the denominator for almost every complication rate in aesthetic medicine is unknown. When this site writes that the true incidence of something is not known, voluntary reporting is usually the reason. Filing is the one thing a reader can do that changes the evidence base.
The programme is at fda.gov/safety/medwatch, and the consumer reporting form is at accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch. Have the product name and the lot number if you can get them.
The Federal Trade Commission
It handles: advertising and billing practices — claims that misrepresent what a treatment does, endorsements and testimonials that are not what they appear to be, undisclosed material connections behind a recommendation, and recurring charges that are difficult to cancel.
It cannot: intervene in your individual case. The FTC brings enforcement actions against patterns of conduct; it does not act as an arbitrator between one customer and one business, and it will not obtain a refund for you.
Reports go to reportfraud.ftc.gov. Screenshots of the advertisement, the price shown and the terms you agreed to are worth more than a description of them.
Your state attorney general
They handle: consumer protection under state law, which is often the fastest route for a dispute about money — prepaid sessions that were never delivered, a business that closed holding your funds, a cancellation that was refused, or charges that continued after you cancelled. Many state offices operate an informal mediation service before any formal action.
They cannot: rule on whether the clinical care you received was appropriate. That is the licensing board’s question, not theirs.
The National Association of Attorneys General maintains a directory of state offices at naag.org/find-my-ag.
The Better Business Bureau
What it is: a private organisation that records complaints and passes them to the business, publishing the outcome. It is not a regulator, it has no legal authority, and a business’s standing with it carries no regulatory meaning at all.
It is listed here for one reason: the complaint record is public and searchable, so it is useful as evidence of a pattern, both to you before a decision and to a regulator afterwards. Its front door is bbb.org. Treat a filing there as a supplement to an official channel rather than a substitute for one.
Which one, in practice
| What went wrong | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Ongoing medical emergency | Emergency medical care first; everything else afterwards. |
| Injury, or a reaction to a product | FDA MedWatch, plus the licensing board if a practitioner’s conduct is in question. |
| Suspected counterfeit or mislabelled product | FDA MedWatch, with the lot number. |
| Treatment given by someone who may not have been licensed to give it | The state board that licenses that profession, in the state where it happened. |
| An advertisement that misrepresented a result | The FTC, with screenshots. |
| Money: prepaid sessions, a closure, a cancellation refused | State attorney general, and your card issuer if you paid by credit card. |
Two practical notes. Ask for your records — the product name, the lot number and what was documented at the visit — in writing, and ask early; every channel above works better with them. And where the problem is a charge on a credit card, the card issuer has its own dispute process that runs in parallel with any of these and on its own deadline, which is worth checking as soon as the charge appears.
Every route on this page is an official channel with a public complaint procedure. The register of treatments it supports is on the front page.
Reviewed: 8 August 2026 · Evidence current to: 8 August 2026