Ms Margaret O'Donnell:

The age of consent for medical treatment is 16. It is unclear whether beauty therapies such as fillers, injections and laser treatments come under medical treatment or a consumer purchase. Our association has a guideline that 18 should be the age of consent for somebody considering breast implants and most of us would be slow to consider it for a patient aged 18. In my practice, if somebody aged 18 or 20 comes in, he or she would usually bring a parent, more for advice rather than consent, and one tries to encourage this. I have had patients who have decided to have implants removed. One young woman said she went to a hotel where a clinic was doing a promotion with her friend who wanted implants. She ended up having implants too because she felt she was getting a good deal.