Can Beauty Salons And Aesthetic Clinics Be Sued For Erroneous Treatment?

• Law Firm: Kevin Wu & Associates
• Subject Matter: Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Personal Injury, Professional Negligence
• Author: Ms Nurin Husnina
• Published date: 13 March 2023

Despite the subjectivity of "beauty" and the fact that everyone is unique in their own ways, it is undeniable that most individuals may have desires to sustain a flawless and/or perfect appearance and to rescuplt the imperfections they perceived on their bodies including but not limited to performing nose surgery (rhinoplasty), massive fat removal (liposuction), lip and jawline augmentation as well as manicure and pedicure. The aforementioned desires had become a catalyst for the rising number of licensed and unlicensed beauty salons and aesthetic clinics in Malaysia. It has also resulted in the recent emergence of a medical modality known as aesthetic medical practice of which the goal is about creating a harmonious physical and psychological balance whereby this practice is on the rise globally and is also gaining popularity nationwide.¹ Be that as it may, everything comes with costs and risks that one may not be able to foresee and/or anticipate.

Competency of Beauticians and Aesthetic Medical Practitioners

According to Awg Armadajaya bin Awg Mahmud JC in the case of Teng Ngit Yoong v Liew Nyok Fen² (hereinafter referred to as 'Teng Ngit Yoong'), a beauty salon or beauty parlor, or sometimes beauty shop, is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women. In Malaysia, there exists no body that regulates the beauty salon per se. As such, there is no yardstick to measure the standard expected of a "beauty therapist" or a "beautician". Unless there exists a yardstick to gauge the standard expected of the beauty therapists or beauticians, the Court is unable to scrutinize the standard that make members of this occupation as professional.³ The judge had further added that they are at best, people who offered their services for a fee but cannot in anyway be regarded as professional.

It was further intimated by the judge that the medical practitioners or pharmacists who venture into medical aesthetic on the other hand are competent, not by virtue of the existence of a regulatory body for these medical practitioners, but by their own professional bodies which determine their qualifications as medical doctors or pharmacists.⁴ According to the Aesthetic Medical Practice Guidelines for General Practitioners 2013, it is a prerequisite for a medical practitioner who intends to practise aesthetic medical practice to, inter alia, be fully registered with the Medical Council and hold a valid practicing certificate under the Medical Act 1971.

As...