Risks, suitability and aftercare
The sections clinics write last, and worst, are the ones that decide whether a patient trusts the page. This module treats them as the core of it.
PrerequisitesModule 05 · The rulesModule 10 · Treatment page anatomy
Risk, suitability and aftercare should be written as information rather than reassurance: what can happen, how commonly in your own experience, what you do about it, who should not have the treatment at all, and what the following fortnight looks like in time order. Pages that soften these sections perform worse, because the reader has already read about the risks elsewhere and is checking whether you will mention them.
What you will be able to do
By the end of this module you will be able to:
- Write a risk section that is complete without being alarming.
- Write a suitability section that names who should not have the treatment.
- Structure an aftercare section as a timeline with three response lists.
- Recognise the softening language that undermines all three.
Why these sections are the page
A patient considering an elective procedure has already searched for what goes wrong. They have read a forum. They arrive at your page carrying a specific fear, and they are checking whether you will acknowledge it.
A page that does not mention risk does not remove the fear; it transfers the fear onto the clinic. This is the exact opposite of the intended effect, and it is why the sections written last and least carefully are the ones deciding whether the page works.
There is a professional dimension as well. Consent standards require that a patient understands what could happen before agreeing to it. A website is not consent, but a website that conceals what the consent conversation will contain is setting up a consultation that starts badly.
Risk, written as information
Four components, in this order: what commonly happens and is expected, what happens occasionally, what is rare and serious, and what you do about each.
The fourth is the one clinics omit and it is the one that converts a frightening list into a reassuring one. A reader who learns that bruising is common is mildly alarmed. A reader who learns that bruising is common, that it settles within a stated period, and that the clinic reviews every patient at two weeks, is informed and calmed by the same paragraph.
Where a treatment has a recognised serious complication, name it. Omitting it because it is rare is the decision that looks worst in retrospect, and the patient who experiences it will search for it afterwards and find that your page did not mention it.
Suitability, and the word no
This section has two halves and the second is the valuable one. Who this suits is easy and largely predictable. Who should not have it is where the clinic's judgement becomes visible.
Write it as a list of situations rather than as a list of conditions, because patients recognise situations. "If you are hoping this will change something a photograph cannot show, this is not the right treatment" is understood immediately. A clinical exclusion list is also necessary but it is not what makes the section work.
Include the alternative wherever one exists. Telling somebody they are not suitable and stopping is unhelpful; telling them they are not suitable and what usually does help is the judgement they came for, and it is what Module 01, What an aesthetic clinic actually sells described as the second of the three things a clinic sells.
Aftercare as a timeline
The structure is a timeline because the question is temporal. What today looks like, what tomorrow looks like, when they can return to work, exercise, social events, and when the result is final. Vague reassurance that recovery is minimal answers none of these and is the most common version on clinic sites.
Include the review appointment on the timeline, with when it happens and whether it is included in the price. Patients frequently do not realise a review is offered at all, which wastes a genuine differentiator.
The three lists
Underneath the timeline, three short lists that a patient can find at nine in the evening.
- What is expected. The things that will happen and do not need action.
- What needs a phone call. The things to tell the clinic about, with the number and the hours.
- What needs urgent care. The rare things that mean going straight to emergency care, stated plainly and without hedging.
Publishing the third list frightens some clinic owners. In practice it does the opposite: it demonstrates that the clinic has thought about the worst case and has a plan, which is precisely what a nervous reader is looking for. NHS guidance on cosmetic procedures takes the same approach, and it is a useful model for tone.
Language that undermines the work
Certain constructions cancel the value of these sections even when the information is present. Delete them.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| Minimal downtime | Most people return to work the same day. Bruising, if it occurs, is usually visible for about a week. |
| Virtually painless | Most people describe it as a sharp scratch. A topical anaesthetic is available and takes twenty minutes to work. |
| Side effects are rare | The common side effects are x and y. The rare and serious one is z, and here is what we do about it. |
| Suitable for most people | This is not suitable if you are x, y or z. If that is you, the alternative is usually w. |
| Results speak for themselves | Delete. This sentence contains no information and reads as an evasion. |
The right-hand column is longer in every row, which is the same trade as Module 06, Writing the clinic's proposition. Specificity costs words and buys trust, and there is no construction that gives you both for free.
Rewrite the three sections
Ninety minutes on one treatment page, preferably the one you rebuilt in Module 10. Do this with the practitioner who performs the treatment.
- List every risk you discuss at consent for this treatment. If the website mentions fewer, the website is incomplete.
- Sort them into common, occasional and rare-and-serious, using your own observed practice rather than any figure you have read.
- Write what the clinic does about each. This is the sentence that converts the list.
- Write the suitability section in two halves, and name the alternative for each exclusion.
- Build the aftercare timeline with five points and the three response lists underneath.
- Search the finished page for every phrase in the table in section six and replace them.
Have the practitioner read the finished sections. If they would not say it in a consent conversation, it should not be on the page in either direction, too soft or too alarming.
Questions readers ask about this module
Will listing risks put patients off?
It puts some patients off, and those are largely the patients who would have been unhappy afterwards. The patients it retains arrive better informed and consent more easily. Clinics that make this change generally report shorter, calmer consultations.
How much detail is too much?
The consent conversation is the benchmark. Anything you would raise at consent belongs on the page. Anything you would not raise at consent, such as an extremely rare event described in a single case report, is probably detail that alarms without informing.
Can I say a treatment is safe?
You can say it has a well-established safety profile when performed by an appropriately trained practitioner, if that is accurate. Unqualified claims that a procedure is safe are absolute claims, and absolute claims need substantiation you are unlikely to have. Module 5 covers the general rule.
Should aftercare instructions also be given on paper?
Yes, and the website version should match the paper version word for word. A discrepancy between the two is the sort of thing that becomes important precisely when it matters most.
Sources and primary references
Disclosure. This module contains no commercial links of any kind. This course is published by Northbank Media, is free to read, and is funded by the workbook pack and by clearly labelled series sponsorship. We do not rank, review or recommend agencies or clinics.
Module 13 of 32