Louisiana laser clinic marketing that names the physician and waits out the long summer

In Louisiana, the question a careful client asks is "who is the doctor here?" Your website should answer it before they have to call.

The state's laser surgery law is a single sentence. Only people licensed in Louisiana to practice medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry or podiatry may perform laser surgery. It dates from 1991.

The medical board reads "surgery" broadly. Its office-based surgery definitions take in lasers, pulsed light and radio frequency used for aesthetic or cosmetic purposes. Those definitions were amended in June 2025.

The House has noticed the gap. In 2021 the House passed a resolution asking the medical board to write rules for nonsurgical cosmetic lasers. It said the board's rules had no provisions on them. It also described physician designees who need a signed authorization to use a laser without a physician present.

What that means for your marketing:

• A named physician on the treatment pages. Put the supervising or medical director's name and license type where a visitor sees it. Do not hide it on an about page.
• Titles your staff actually hold. "RN" and "MD" are licenses. A device maker's course is training. Say which is which.
• No "walk in, get zapped" copy. A page that promises same-day treatment with no assessment sits badly with how the state treats lasers.

The laser clinic page covers the national claims rules. This is the Louisiana layer. How supervision must work in your clinic is a question for the medical board and your lawyer, not your ad copy. Not legal advice; confirm with counsel.

The laser year runs on sun. In Louisiana the hot, outdoor part of the year simply lasts longer, so your fall push should start a few weeks after a clinic up north starts its own.

Dermatologists tell patients not to tan and not to use sunless tanners before treatment, and to report a recent tan, says the American Academy of Dermatology's preparation guide. A client fresh off a September weekend at the lake is not ready for a first session.

September is still summer here. New Orleans averages a high of 88.1°F that month, with 12.8 days of 90°F or more, by NOAA's climate normals for the New Orleans airport. October drops to 80.6°F and two such days. November falls to 71.2°F with none.

Baton Rouge runs almost the same, at 15.8 hot days in September, per NOAA's Baton Rouge normals. Shreveport is hotter still in September, with 16.5 days at 90°F or more in NOAA's Shreveport normals. It cools faster after that, to a November high of 67.9°F.

So in Louisiana the sequence moves:

• September: consults, not first sessions. Book the skin check and the start date. Ask about tans honestly.
• Mid-October to January: first sessions. Most clients need four to six sessions, plus occasional maintenance, by ASPS's count. Started in late October, a series spaced the way your physician sets it can be well along before May.
• May onward: small areas and maintenance. By May, New Orleans is back to almost six days a month at 90°F.

The national version of this calendar is on the laser clinic page. This is the same logic, moved for a state whose fall comes late.

December is when a laser clinic sells gift cards and package certificates. Louisiana has its own rules for how they must look and how long they last.

Under Louisiana's gift certificate law, a gift card cannot expire sooner than five years from the date it was issued. The expiry date must appear in capital letters, in type of at least ten points. No service or dormancy fee is allowed. A one-time handling fee of up to a dollar is the only charge.

The same law treats a card sold with no expiry date as good until it is used. Breaking the rule counts as a deceptive trade practice under the state's consumer protection law.

The definition reaches further than a plastic card. It covers certificates where the business has been paid the full value of future services. A printed "six sessions, prepaid" certificate given as a gift may fall inside it, so ask your lawyer before you print one with a short date.

Free promotional cards are different. A free card handed out with a package, with nothing paid for it, falls outside the five-year rule under the same law. Federal rules ask for more on that card, including a statement on the front that it is promotional, under Regulation E's gift card rule.

In your December campaign:

• Print the date in capitals. "EXPIRES DECEMBER 1, 2031" on the card itself, at ten-point type or larger.
• No "use it or lose it" copy. It invites a complaint and reads badly next to the law.
• Keep paid and free cards visibly different. Different design, and the free one says so on the front.