Methodology

How treatment information is sourced

Factual treatment fields are intended to trace back to recorded sources such as manufacturer instructions for use, regulatory documents, peer-reviewed literature, or professional society guidance. Missing fields are omitted rather than filled with generated medical prose.

How comparisons are assembled

Comparison pages read matching structured fields from two individual treatment profiles. A separate editorial article is not required. Direct comparisons require compatible entity types and a shared broad treatment family. Selected different-approach comparisons use an explicit family rule and are labeled as treatments that are not direct substitutes.

A page is only eligible for search indexing when both profiles are published, non-sample, source-supported, and complete enough for the relevant comparison template. Other valid long-tail comparisons may remain noindex while still being usable.

How evidence grades work

Evidence grades describe the recorded strength of evidence for a claim, not whether a treatment is good or appropriate for an individual. A grade is shown only when stored in the treatment profile.

How regional price estimates work

A ZIP or postal code is normalized and matched to a stored surrounding market. The site then reads a researched regional estimate from the database. No search engine, language model, crawler, or external pricing service is called when a visitor submits a code.

Each estimate keeps its currency, pricing unit, treatment area when applicable, estimated average or median when available, estimated range, source count, methodology note, source URLs, and research date. Incompatible units, currencies, treatment areas, and promotion types are not combined.

A regional estimate is not a quote and may not represent a provider located inside the exact postal area. Actual pricing varies by provider, quantity, treatment area, product, promotions, membership, and individual treatment needs.

Why we do not diagnose or rank providers

Whether a treatment suits someone depends on anatomy, history, and goals that a public comparison cannot assess. Aesthetic Index presents factual differences and researched pricing context; it does not select a treatment or provider for the reader.