Before-and-after galleries are the most persuasive thing on a med spa's website, and among the least reliable. We keep them at arm's length, and think you should too — not because the results are fake, but because the format flatters even honest work.
Consider what a gallery can't show you. Lighting, angle, and expression do an enormous amount of the visible work; softer light and a relaxed jaw will "improve" a face that received no treatment at all. You're seeing the cases a practice chose to display, which are its best ones — the misses and the corrections that didn't photograph well never make the wall. And you have no idea how much product, over how many visits, produced the "after" — which is exactly the information that should drive your own decision.
A gallery is a highlight reel curated by the person selling the tickets. Useful for taste; useless for odds.
What a gallery is genuinely good for is taste. It shows you the aesthetic a practice aims at — natural or dramatic, subtle or obvious — and that's worth knowing before you sit down. Read it as a portfolio of intent, not as evidence of what will happen to you.
For the thing that actually predicts your result — how a provider decides, doses, and follows up — you want the consultation, not the camera roll. The questions worth asking are in our guide to consultations; bring them, and watch how the answers land.
Editorial, not medical advice. Nothing here is a diagnosis, treatment plan, or a substitute for a consultation with a licensed provider. No provider pays for coverage; see our disclosures.