DCA-C02 · Advanced course
Advanced Botulinum Toxin Masterclass
About this course
This course takes a practitioner who is already competent in upper-face botulinum toxin and extends them into the lower face and masseter. The step up is real. In the upper face, the muscles you relax largely produce expression. In the lower face they produce speech, eating, drinking and smiling. A dosing error in the frontalis gives a patient a heavy brow for a few weeks; a dosing error in the orbicularis oris affects how they talk and drink. The doses here are correspondingly small — 2–4 units in several areas — and precision of placement matters more than in any upper-face treatment.
Entry requirements
Prerequisite: Foundation Botulinum Toxin Masterclass (passed in full). The academy's standard entry requirements also apply (listed below).
Exceptions can be made based on past experience: the Academy Lead may exempt an applicant from a prerequisite course under the academy's Recognition of Prior Experience policy.
- Aged 18 or over (photo ID required)
- GCSEs in English, Maths and Science at grade 5 or above, or an equivalent qualification
- No GCSEs? Past experience — for example documented work in healthcare or aesthetics — may be accepted instead, at the Academy Lead's discretion, after an interview and the pre-course study
- No previous healthcare or aesthetics experience required
- Basic Life Support and anaphylaxis awareness training completed within the last 12 months, before the practical day — we can signpost a course
- Hepatitis B vaccination status declared (vaccination strongly recommended before treating the public)
- Enhanced DBS check
- Pre-course study pack completed (about 4 hours)
- Signed enrolment and training agreement and student declaration
- Our insurance covers you during the course; you will need your own insurance before treating anyone afterwards
After the course
Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine: after the course you may only treat patients who have been assessed and prescribed for face to face by an independent prescriber. The certificate confirms your training; it is not a licence to practise.
Topics covered
- Overview of the treatment area and how the procedure works
- Patient assessment and confirming suitability at consultation
- Contraindications and cautions specific to this course
- Consent, documentation and the consultation requirements every course must follow
- Recognising and escalating complications, including treatment-specific risks
- The competency sign-off framework used to assess trainees
Practical training
Hands-on practice takes place under direct supervision, assessed against the course's own competency sign-off framework before you practise independently.
Practical training takes place on consenting models under the direct, one-to-one supervision of a prescribing clinician, who may stop a treatment at any time.
How the course runs
Whatever the subject, every course we run follows the same shape.
- 01
Theory first
Underpinning knowledge before anything practical — anatomy, how the product or device works, who is not a suitable candidate, and what to do if something goes wrong.
- 02
Demonstration
You watch the technique performed and talked through step by step, with the reasoning behind each decision made explicit rather than assumed.
- 03
Supervised practice
You perform the technique yourself under direct supervision, with feedback as you go rather than only at the end.
- 04
The work around the treatment
Consent, record-keeping, product traceability, aftercare and follow-up. The parts that keep a practice safe and compliant, which many courses skip entirely.
Safety and patient assessment
Before technique comes knowing when not to treat, and what to do if something goes wrong. This is drawn directly from our own clinical procedure manual for this treatment.
Contraindications covered
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
- Active skin infection, cold sore, or significant inflammation at the treatment site
- Known allergy to the product or any of its components
- Bleeding disorders or current anticoagulant/antiplatelet therapy (increased bruising and bleeding risk — does not automatically exclude, but must be assessed and documented)
- History of keloid or hypertrophic scarring (relevant to collagen-stimulating products specifically)
- Neuromuscular disorders such as myasthenia gravis (specifically relevant to Botulinum Toxin)
- Unrealistic patient expectations not resolved by consultation discussion
Complications & escalation covered
- Bruising and swelling (common, minor, expected — covered in standard aftercare advice)
- Vascular occlusion (rare but serious — the practice must have hyalase immediately available wherever filler-type products are used, per SOP-004)
- Infection at the injection site
- Allergic or hypersensitivity reaction
- Asymmetry or unevenness requiring review
- Nodule or granuloma formation (longer-term complication, relevant to certain product types)
This list covers what the course teaches you to recognise and assess. It is not exhaustive and does not replace full individual patient assessment — every contraindication is checked against a real patient's medical history at consultation, never assumed absent.
What you receive
On successful completion of your course — including its theory and supervised practical assessments — you receive the Doctor Care Aesthetics Certificate of Completion, issued by the academy and signed by our Academy Lead, Fatima Husham. It records your course and the assessments you passed. It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification, and we will never present it as one.
Frequently asked questions
No. Our courses are open to anyone aged 18 or over who wants to start a career in aesthetics — no previous healthcare or aesthetics experience is needed, and healthcare professionals are also welcome. Because many delegates have no clinical background, the pre-course study pack and the first day cover the basics — hand hygiene, aseptic non-touch technique, sharps safety, taking a medical history and consent — and the trainer checks these at induction.
You need to be 18 or over, with GCSEs in English, Maths and Science at grade 5 or above (or equivalent). Before the practical day you need Basic Life Support and anaphylaxis awareness training from the last 12 months, and an enhanced DBS check. Courses run at four levels — Foundation, Intermediate, Advanced and Masterclass — and intermediate, advanced and masterclass courses also require the relevant earlier course first. If you don't have the GCSEs, relevant past experience may be accepted instead after an interview (see below).
Yes, in two ways. First, if you have already trained and worked in a treatment area, you can ask in writing when you enrol to skip the prerequisite course. You'll need a certificate from an equivalent face-to-face course with supervised practical training, a logbook of at least 10 treatments in that area from the last 12 months (each signed off by your supervising prescriber or practitioner), current insurance for that treatment and photo ID. You then pass the prerequisite course's theory exam before the course and a practical safety check with the trainer on Day 1. The Academy Lead decides (with the Clinical Lead's agreement for injectable courses), and if anything is missing you take the prerequisite course. An exemption only covers the prerequisite — you still take every assessment on your own course. Second, if you don't have the GCSEs we ask for, documented work in healthcare or aesthetics may be accepted instead, at the Academy Lead's discretion, after an interview and the pre-course study. All the other entry requirements still apply.
Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine: after the course you may only treat patients who have been assessed and prescribed for face to face by an independent prescriber. You will also need your own insurance. The certificate confirms your training; it is not a licence to practise.
In the clinic itself, at Bedford Park Corner in Chiswick — the same rooms where we treat patients, not a hired training venue. You see how a working, compliant clinic actually runs alongside learning the technique.
Teaching is led by a GPhC-registered pharmacist independent prescriber. That means the prescribing and regulatory side of practice is taught by someone who works within it every day, rather than covered as an afterthought.
Every course combines underpinning theory — anatomy, pharmacology, contraindications and complication management — with supervised practical work. We teach why a technique works, not only how to perform it.
Practical training takes place on consenting models under the direct, one-to-one supervision of a prescribing clinician, who may stop a treatment at any time. Every model is assessed for suitability before treatment.
You will have a defined period of post-course support for questions as you begin putting what you have learned into practice. Training does not end the day the course does.
On successful completion of your course, including its theory and supervised practical assessments, you receive the Doctor Care Aesthetics Certificate of Completion. It is issued in-house by the academy. It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification, and we will never present it as one.
Register your interest using the form on this site. We will come back to you with course details, entry requirements, dates and pricing, and talk through which course is the right starting point for you.
Interested in this course?
Register your interest and we will send you the full details, entry requirements and available dates — and tell you honestly whether it suits your background.