Published 2 June 2026 · Updated 19 August 2026
Most advice about choosing a clinic is unverifiable: look for experience, trust your instincts, read reviews. This page takes the opposite approach and lists only things you can actually check, including the ones that would let you check this clinic.
Disclosure: MED YU MED is a clinic that sells the treatments discussed across this site. The checks below apply to it exactly as they apply anywhere else — the licence number, the way prices are stated on our treatment pages, how our images are labelled. If you find a page of ours that fails one of them, it fails.
This page explains how to check a clinic. It does not tell you whether a treatment is right for you: that requires examination by a licensed physician, and nothing here replaces that consultation.
1. Verify the licence yourself, do not take it from the website
In Dubai, both the facility and the individual practitioner are licensed by the Dubai Health Authority, and both can be looked up in the public register. The DHA runs an online service, Sheryan, with separate sections for facilities and for professionals, plus a Dubai Medical Registry.
What this means in practice: a licence number printed on a website is a claim, and the register is the verification. Look up the clinic. Then look up the doctor who will hold the needle or the handpiece — a facility licence says nothing about who is treating you. Check that the speciality on the licence matches what is being proposed. If the person performing an injectable procedure is not licensed for it, that is a matter for the regulator — the register, not the brand, answers the question.
MED YU MED operates under DHA licence number 6589480. Look it up rather than believing this sentence.
2. Ask what happens when something goes wrong
This question tells you how a clinic has prepared for complications, and it is worth asking before you agree to anything.
For any injectable: does the clinic hold hyaluronidase on site, and what is the protocol if a vascular complication is suspected? For any device: what eye protection is used when treating near the eyes, and what is done about a burn? For everything: what number do you call at eleven at night, and what happens if the clinic is closed?
This page does not answer those questions on our behalf. Ask us, in the room, and ask the same of any clinic you are considering.
A good answer is specific and unhesitating. A poor answer redirects to how rarely complications happen. Both tell you something.
3. Read what the clinic says it cannot do
Every treatment has limits. Material that sets them out gives you more to decide with than material that does not. Melasma is managed rather than cured. No energy device replaces a facelift. Filler does not lift loose skin. Hair loss has several causes and the injectable options only address some of them.
Under Dubai’s rules on medical advertising, claims about outcomes are expected to carry the associated risks alongside them — so an absence of stated limits is itself worth noticing.
4. Expect a consultation that can end in “no”
A consultation is a medical assessment, not a booking step. It should include examination, medical history, current medication, and a clear statement of what the proposed treatment will and will not achieve. It should sometimes conclude that the treatment is not appropriate, that a different specialist is needed, or that the underlying problem has to be diagnosed first.
Pressure to decide during the appointment, discounts that expire when you leave the room, and packages sold before anyone has examined you are all pointed in the wrong direction.
5. Check that prices are attached to conditions
A price is meaningful when it names what it covers: which zone, how many sessions, what is included, and what changes it. A single figure with no variables is not yet a quote — ask what it covers, how many sessions it assumes and what changes it. A course price should state how many sessions and what happens if you stop halfway.
And a quoted price is never an indication that the treatment suits you. That determination comes after examination, not before.
6. Ask what is actually being injected or used
For injectables: the name of the preparation, whether it is a manufactured registered product or a compounded mixture, and whether it is being used for its approved indication or off-label. Off-label use is common in aesthetic practice, and you are entitled to be told when a proposed use falls outside the product’s approved indication, what the evidence for it is, and what the specific risks are, before you consent.
For devices: which device and which wavelength or setting, and whether the published evidence you have read relates to that exact platform. Device protocols are not standardised between manufacturers, so evidence published for one platform does not automatically apply to another — ask which platform the evidence you were shown relates to.
7. Look at how before-and-after images are presented
Useful photographs are taken in matched lighting, at the same angle, with the same expression, and are labelled with how long after treatment they were taken and how many sessions were involved. Images without those details are not evidence of anything. Under Dubai’s advertising rules, patient images used in medical promotion require consent and are not permitted to create unrealistic expectations.
The same applies to testimonials: a story is not an outcome, and an outcome in one person is not a prediction for you.
What these checks do not do
None of this removes risk. Complications occur in licensed clinics, in experienced hands, with correctly selected patients. These checks reduce avoidable risk and show you how a clinic is likely to behave when something does go wrong — they are not a guarantee that nothing will.
Practical questions to bring to the appointment
- Which DHA-licensed doctor will perform the treatment, and in what speciality are they licensed?
- What exactly is being used — product name, device, wavelength or concentration?
- Is this an approved indication or off-label use?
- What are the risks specific to this area of the face or body?
- What does the recovery actually look like, day by day?
- What is the plan if the result is uneven, or if a complication appears?
- Who do I contact out of hours, and where do I go if the clinic is closed?
- How many sessions before we assess whether this is working, and what happens if it is not?
Emergency numbers worth having before you need them
In the UAE, the ambulance number is 998 — free, available 24 hours, and working in every emirate. Use it for difficulty breathing, swelling of the face, lips or tongue, a spreading rash, fainting, sudden changes in vision, or sudden facial droop or slurred speech, whatever procedure you have had. After any injectable, add to that list sudden severe or disproportionate pain and skin that turns white, dusky or mottled around the treated area — a possible vascular complication, where time matters. In parallel, contact the clinic that treated you and have the name of the product or device to hand. Aesthetic clinics keep business hours; emergencies do not.
For anything urgent but not life-threatening outside clinic hours, the route is a licensed urgent care facility — regulated by the DHA in Dubai, the Department of Health in Abu Dhabi, the Sharjah Health Authority in Sharjah, and the Ministry of Health and Prevention in the remaining emirates.
Related reading
For worked examples of how evidence is weighed for specific treatments, see RF microneedling versus focused ultrasound, PRP for hair growth and chemical peel types.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check a clinic’s licence in Dubai?
The Dubai Health Authority runs an online service, Sheryan, with public sections for licensed facilities and licensed professionals, alongside a Dubai Medical Registry. Look up both the clinic and the individual doctor who will treat you, and check that the speciality on the licence matches the treatment being proposed. A licence number printed on a website is a claim; the register is the verification.
What is the single most useful question to ask?
“What happens if something goes wrong, and who do I call at night?” A specific answer — the protocol, whether reversal agents are held on site, an out-of-hours route — tells you the clinic has thought about complications. An answer that redirects to how rare complications are tells you something different.
Are before-and-after photos reliable?
Only when they are labelled: same lighting, same angle, same expression, with the time since treatment and the number of sessions stated. Without that, the difference between two photographs can be lighting alone. Dubai’s advertising rules require consent for patient images and prohibit presentations that create unrealistic expectations.
Is off-label treatment a warning sign?
Not in itself — off-label use is legitimate and widespread in aesthetic medicine, and some well-established treatments fall into it. What matters is disclosure: you should be told when a proposed use is outside the approved indication, what the evidence for it is, and what the specific risks are, before you consent.
Should a consultation ever end without booking?
Yes, and regularly. Some complaints need a diagnosis before any cosmetic treatment; some need a different specialist; some are better left alone. A consultation that always ends in a booked procedure is not functioning as an assessment.
What should informed consent cover?
What is being used, what it is expected to achieve, what it will not achieve, the common side effects, the rare serious ones, the alternatives including doing nothing, and what happens if a complication occurs. If consent is presented as a formality to sign at the door, that is worth pausing over.
Commercial interest disclosure: MED YU MED is a licensed clinic selling aesthetic treatments. This page sets out checks that apply to this clinic as much as to any other, including how to verify its licence independently.
Medical disclaimer: This page is for informational purposes only and does not replace a medical consultation.
License statement: MED YU MED operates under DHA License 6589480.
Individual results caveat: Results vary by diagnosis, skin type, and individual response.
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Medically reviewed by
General Practitioner, Aesthetic Medicine Doctor, Dermatologist
DHA License No. 35044799-002
