By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

A doctors' association is moving to file a petition with the Constitutional Court against a law allowing beauticians to perform ``medical treatment'' at beauty salons.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA) claims that many of these salons illegally provide treatment such as laser peeling and others that should be performed in a hospital. Moreover, the resulting side effects have reached a worrisome level, it said.

The Association of Korean Dermatologists (AKD) quoted a Korea Consumer Agency report saying the number of those suffering from side effects from treatment given at non-medical organizations reached 1,863 in 2005, up 13 times from 139 in 1995. ``One of them said she lost her vision after receiving peeling treatment at a beautician,'' the association spokesman Han Seung-kyung said.

``We have received information that these establishments remove moles and inject botox or other fillers to skin, which are meant to be performed by doctors' only,'' Han said. ``Also, 40 percent of outlets in Seoul use ultrasonography machines and 16 percent laser devices, which the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs designated as strictly for surgical use,'' he said.

The current law allows beauticians to analyze one's skin condition and apply ``appropriate'' peeling, make up or skin care treatment for aesthetic purposes only.

However, this procedure is actually a medical one and should be treated as such, they said. ``It's time the law changed. Medical treatment should be done by doctors only,'' a KMA spokesman said.

Doctors also said the government should toughen up on the requirements for qualifications. ``Beauticians should do at least 1,000 hours of courses before applying for the upcoming government-administrated beautician test being written at the end of October,'' Han of AKD said.

``Italy, Switzerland and Canada require 1,800 hours, 1,200 hours and 1,500 hours, respectively, to qualify to take the beauticians test. In Japan, one needs to take a year class at a beautician's school and another for field training,'' Han said.

On the other hand, beauticians claimed they were merely seeking to be acknowledged as professionals in aesthetics. ``We never said we are doctors. We are aestheticians dealing with minor skin troubles and trying to achieve beauty. We have performed such treatments for a long time and we hope the government will acknowledge such devices beyond the narrow medical definition,'' said Cho Su-kyung, head of the Korea Central Esthetician's Association.

She said there are aesthetic schools giving certain amount of education and on-field experience. ``Even so, I don't think dermatologists should be coming to us with this problem when it is the government that came up with the test. The nation approves us,'' she added.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr