Does a med spa in Tennessee need a medical director?
Facility · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
Yes — a Tennessee med spa's registration application must name a medical director or supervising physician, give their Tennessee license number and primary practice address, and include their attestation accepting responsibility for the cosmetic services.
The application must give the name and physical address of the medical spa; the name and Tennessee license number of the medical director or supervising physician responsible for services; the name and physical address of that physician’s primary practice; their certification information; and an attestation that the medical director or supervising physician registering the spa assumes and accepts responsibility for the cosmetic medical services provided there.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.24(1)(a)–(f) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Tennessee rules
The duty sits on a named person. The medical director or supervising physician responsible for the spa must provide the Board with that information, ensure the annual registration, and comply with the signage and advertisement requirements of T.C.A. § 63-1-153. They must also be a medical doctor or osteopathic physician holding an active Tennessee license and an active medical practice in Tennessee — an out-of-state or non-practicing physician cannot fill the role.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.24(3) and (4) · verified Sep 2, 2026
⚠️ and operating unregistered is the physician’s problem. Operation without current registration constitutes unprofessional conduct on the part of the medical director and of any supervising physician providing services — including supervision services — at that unregistered spa, and is grounds for disciplinary action by that physician’s licensing board. The business is unregistered; the license at risk is the doctor’s.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.24(5) · verified Sep 2, 2026
How other states answer this
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Related Tennessee questions
- What must the supervising physician actually do in Tennessee?
- Who may operate a cosmetic laser in Tennessee?
- May an esthetician or laser technician perform microneedling in Tennessee?
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← All Tennessee 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).