What to Ask Any London Laser Clinic Before You Book. Seven Questions, and the One About Diagnosis
Last updated September 2026. Written for The Wellness, Marylebone. Every clinical figure below carries its source.
Since 2010, laser and intense pulsed light treatment in England can lawfully be carried out by anyone, regardless of clinical qualification, because these procedures were removed from the scope of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 regulated activities regulations. That single fact is the reason the questions below matter. The most useful one is the first, and it is not about the machine. Ask who will examine you, what diagnosis they reach, and how the treatment follows from it, because the wrong platform on the wrong skin for the wrong diagnosis is the commonest reason laser disappoints.
Take the free laser suitability check and a doctor will read your answers and reply within one working day.
Why this list exists
Most guides to choosing a laser clinic tell you to check reviews and ask about the machine. Both are reasonable and neither is decisive. Reviews measure how a clinic made people feel, which is worth knowing and is not the same as whether the treatment was the right one. The machine matters, but a good platform in the wrong hands on the wrong diagnosis produces a worse outcome than a modest platform used correctly.
The questions below are the ones that actually separate clinics, in the order we would ask them.
1. Who will examine me, and what will they be looking for
This is the question. You are trying to find out whether a clinical decision is being made at all, or whether the treatment was decided the moment you enquired.
A good answer names the person and their registration, explains that they will assess your skin type, reach a diagnosis, and choose the platform and settings from it, and mentions things you had not thought of. Skin type. Whether the colour you are seeing is pigment or blood vessels. Whether your skin marks after inflammation. Medicines. Recent treatments.
A weaker answer describes a patch test and a consent form as the assessment. A patch test tells you whether a setting burns you. It does not tell you whether the treatment is right.
The distinction is not academic. Facial redness might be rosacea, or seborrhoeic dermatitis, or lupus, or photodamage, and a vascular laser aimed at the wrong one of those wastes your money and can inflame the condition. Brown patches might be sun spots, where laser is strongly supported, or melasma, where laser can make things worse. Nobody can tell which from a phone enquiry.
2. What is my skin type, and how does that change what you will use
If a clinic cannot tell you your skin type and what it changes, they are not planning around the main safety input.
Darker skin absorbs more energy in the melanin, which raises the risk of pigment change after treatment. That changes the wavelength, the energy and the interval, and it rules some platforms out entirely. Intense pulsed light in particular is absorbed by melanin as well as by blood, which is why it is a poor choice at some skin types even when it is the right choice at others.
A clinic that treats every skin the same way is telling you something about how it plans.
3. Have you ruled out the things that would make this a bad idea today
There is a short list that changes the timing or the answer. Isotretinoin, now or recently, because healing is altered. Pregnancy or breastfeeding, because elective laser waits. A tan or self-tan, because the pigment risk rises. A recent peel, laser or microneedling. Photosensitising medicines. Cold sores, which can be provoked and may need prophylaxis. A keloid history. A tendency to mark after any inflammation.
None of those is necessarily a no. Most are a not yet, or a different setting. But a clinic that has not asked has not looked.
4. What does the evidence say, and can you name it
Ask for the study, not the number. A clinic quoting a bare percentage with nothing behind it is quoting something it cannot substantiate, and the advertising regulator has upheld complaints against London laser clinics for exactly that. The Laser Treatment Clinic Ltd was found in 2018 to have used before and after images that were unrepresentative and unproven as genuine, alongside efficacy claims that were insufficiently evidenced.
Good answers sound like this. For solar lentigines, Mardani and colleagues reviewed 41 clinical trials covering 3,234 patients in 2025 and found laser outperformed topical agents, cryotherapy and peels, with picosecond platforms reaching 68 to 93 percent success. For atrophic acne scarring, Liu and colleagues found fractional carbon dioxide modestly better than fractional erbium in a 2024 meta analysis, odds ratio 1.81 with a 95 percent confidence interval of 1.08 to 3.01, at the cost of longer downtime. For facial redness, Chang pooled four studies covering 141 participants in 2021 and found no statistically significant difference between pulsed dye laser and intense pulsed light.
Notice that the last of those is a finding that no platform wins. A clinic willing to tell you that is a clinic that has read the literature rather than the brochure.
5. What will this not do
The answer to this question tells you more about a clinic than the answer to any other.
Honest answers exist for every indication. Melasma is not cleared by laser and can be provoked by it. Acne scarring improves by grades and does not resolve. Rosacea is managed and returns. Hair reduction is long term rather than lasting for life, and Kao and colleagues pooled 13 randomised trials covering 652 patients in 2023 finding reduction from about 30 to 84 percent depending on device, hair and skin type. Radiofrequency and ultrasound tightening are not laser, whatever page they appear on.
A clinic with no limits to describe has either not thought about it or is not telling you.
6. What is the full price, what does it include, and is the consultation credited
Ask for the course price and not the session price, because a course of six at £900 is not comparable to a single session at £900. Ask what the quoted figure includes. Aftercare products. The review at the end. Any repeat session if the response is slower than expected.
Ask what happens if the assessment concludes laser is not the right treatment. A clinic that credits the consultation fee against whatever is right instead has aligned its incentive with your outcome. A clinic that keeps it has not.
Be careful with a from price. The advertising regulator upheld a complaint against Thérapie Clinic in 2024 over laser hair removal discount claims, on the basis that the advertiser could not show a representative proportion of treatments were genuinely available at the advertised rate. A from price should be a figure a normal patient actually pays.
7. Who takes my consent, and how long do I have to think about it
Under the General Medical Council guidance for doctors offering cosmetic interventions, in effect since June 2016, the doctor who will perform the intervention must personally discuss it and seek consent. That cannot be delegated to a colleague, a salesperson or reception. The discussion has to cover expected outcomes, benefits, risks and the impact if the result disappoints.
There should also be a cooling off period between the consultation and the treatment. No fixed length is mandated, and two weeks is the common working standard, scaled to how invasive the treatment is. A clinic offering treatment on the day of the first consultation, or applying a discount that expires if you go home to think, is applying pressure the guidance exists to prevent.
Why the floor is low
One fact sits underneath this whole list.
Laser and intense pulsed light for cosmetic purposes were removed from the scope of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 regulated activities regulations from around October 2010. So in England these treatments can currently be delivered by anyone, whatever their clinical background. Separately, some London boroughs license laser and intense pulsed light premises locally through environmental health.
The practical consequence for you as a patient is simple. The qualification floor is low, so the questions above are doing work that no rule is doing for you. Ask them.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone perform laser treatment in England? Following the 2010 deregulation, non-surgical cosmetic laser and intense pulsed light procedures can currently be carried out in England by anyone regardless of clinical qualification. That is why asking who will examine you and what diagnosis they reach matters more than asking about the machine.
Who should take my consent for a cosmetic laser treatment? The doctor who will perform the intervention, personally. The General Medical Council guidance for doctors offering cosmetic interventions, in effect since June 2016, states this cannot be delegated to a colleague or a salesperson, and requires the discussion to cover expected outcomes, benefits, risks and the impact if the result disappoints.
How long should the cooling off period be? There is no fixed length mandated. Two weeks is the common working standard, and the appropriate length is a clinical judgement scaled to how invasive and risky the treatment is. Treatment offered on the day of a first consultation, or a discount that expires if you go home to think, is a warning sign.
Should I trust before and after photographs? Treat them carefully. Before and after images are held to the same standard as testimonial evidence, and a marketer must hold signed and dated proof that they are genuine, unretouched and representative of a typical result. A single best case cannot stand in for the norm. The advertising regulator upheld a complaint against The Laser Treatment Clinic Ltd in 2018 on exactly this point. We publish none, because that substantiation burden is one we cannot yet meet.
What is a reasonable answer to what will this not do? A specific one. Melasma is not cleared by laser and can be provoked by it. Acne scarring improves by grades rather than resolving. Rosacea is managed and recurs. Hair reduction is long term rather than lasting for life. A clinic with no limits to describe is a warning in itself.
Ask us these questions
Take the free laser suitability check and a doctor will read your answers and reply within one working day, including telling you if laser is not the right answer for you. Or book a consultation with a doctor at The Wellness in Marylebone, minutes from Baker Street, £250 on video or £350 in person, credited in full against whatever you go on to have.
Email team@thewellnesslondon.com or call +44 20 3951 3429.
This article is for information and does not constitute medical advice or a diagnosis. Regulatory positions summarised here are current at the date above and are not legal advice. Every laser treatment at The Wellness follows an assessment by a GMC registered doctor, who discusses the treatment with you and takes your consent personally. Individual results vary. Please speak to a doctor before any cosmetic treatment.