Does a med spa in Georgia need a medical director?
Oversight · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
The cited rules do not settle this generally — they require only that a non-physician-office facility offering cosmetic laser services other than hair removal hold a consulting physician agreement and file that physician's details with the Board.
Georgia licenses the people who operate cosmetic lasers, in two tiers, and requires the facility to have a consulting physician behind them. Separately, a physician delegates medical acts to a nurse by written protocol or to a physician assistant by a board-approved job description.
Drawn from 8 verified rules in this section · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.05 · Aug 17, 2026
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.06 · Aug 17, 2026
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.02(2) · Aug 17, 2026
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.02(3) · Aug 17, 2026
- O.C.G.A. §43-34-23 · Aug 17, 2026
- O.C.G.A. § 43-10-1(8) · Sep 2, 2026
- O.C.G.A. § 43-10-1(8)(A)–(D) · Sep 2, 2026
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.07(1)(d)–(e) · Sep 8, 2026
Related Georgia rules
An assistant laser practitioner may perform cosmetic laser services under the supervision of a Board-licensed physician or a licensed senior laser practitioner. A senior laser practitioner may perform cosmetic laser services and may supervise assistant laser practitioners performing them.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.05 · verified Aug 17, 2026
A consulting physician must be licensed in Georgia, have a principal place of business in Georgia or practice within 50 miles of the facility supervised, be trained in laser modalities (physics, safety, technique, indications, pre- and post-operative care, and treating complications), and be available for emergency consultation. The consulting physician establishes the protocols for the cosmetic laser services provided at a facility and files those protocols with the Board.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 360-35-.06 · verified Aug 17, 2026
How other states answer this
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
Related Georgia questions
- What must the supervising physician actually do in Georgia?
- Who may operate a cosmetic laser in Georgia?
- May an esthetician or laser technician perform microneedling in Georgia?
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← All Georgia rules and changes · MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).