Editorial standards

Cosmetic surgery is a regulated health service in Australia. The copy on this site is written as journalism, not as an advertisement for a practitioner. These rules bind staff and guest contributors.

Ahpra and the TGA

We follow the spirit of Ahpra's Guidelines for advertising a regulated health service. That means no testimonials, no before-and-after images used to promise a look, no gifts for reviews, and no language that guarantees a result. Prescription-only medicines and many energy devices sit under TGA scheduling. We describe classes of treatment; we do not advertise a named prescription product.

Titles

“Specialist plastic surgeon” is reserved for medical practitioners with specialist registration in surgery — plastic surgery. “Cosmetic surgeon” is not a protected specialist title. When a source's registration type is unknown we write “registered medical practitioner” and point readers to the Ahpra register. See specialist plastic surgeon versus other titles.

Sources

Clinical claims are attributed to published guidelines, peer-reviewed papers, Medicare Benefits Schedule items, hospital or college statements, or named statutes. We do not launder a clinic brochure as evidence. Where evidence is thin, we say so.

Independence

Authors are journalists. They are not presenting themselves as operating surgeons. Paid or guest-post links are marked rel="sponsored" and are kept off the body of clinical explainers. Partnership administration is disclosed on the write for us and privacy pages.

Corrections

Factual errors are corrected in the article with a dated note. Send evidence through the contact form. We distinguish a correction from a request to delete unflattering but accurate reporting.

Safety

Every article can be read beside our recovery hub. We remind readers that emergencies go to 000 and that Healthdirect (1800 022 222) is the national nurse triage line. We do not publish instructions that would help someone circumvent a medical assessment.