How to Choose an Injector in Naples — A Galderma Trainer’s Honest Guide

I’m Brandie — Brandie Gostigian, PA-C. I’ve been injecting Botox, Dysport, and filler for Naples and Southwest Florida patients for more than fourteen years, first at Dr. Hasen’s office in Naples and now at my own practice, Skinhaus Aesthetics in Estero. As a Galderma GAIN national trainer, I also teach other injectors how to do this safely. So I see both sides — the chair and the classroom — and I want to tell you how to choose an injector the way I wish every patient would.

Picking an injector is a medical decision dressed up as a beauty one. Done well, you look rested and like yourself. Done badly, you can end up with a frozen face, lumps, or — rarely but seriously — a vascular complication. Here’s how to tell the difference before you book.

First: who is even allowed to inject you in Florida?

Injectables are prescription medical treatments, and Florida law treats them that way. The people who can legally inject Botox and dermal filler are physicians (MD/DO), physician assistants like me (PA-C), nurse practitioners (ARNPs) working under a written protocol, and registered nurses acting under a supervising physician’s specific order and oversight. What that list does not include matters just as much: estheticians, cosmetologists, and medical assistants cannot legally inject you, no matter how polished the spa looks or how confident the person with the syringe sounds.

The letters after a name aren’t the whole story, though. A great injector and a risky one can hold the same license. What actually separates them is real injectable experience, genuine medical oversight, and the judgment to say no. So treat credentials as the floor, not the finish line — then look at the things below.

Green flags — what a good injector actually does

The consultation starts with you. A good appointment opens with questions about yourgoals and history — not the injector pointing at your face and listing everything “wrong” with it. That second move has a name in our world, “insecurity mapping,” and it’s a sales tactic, not medicine.

They keep hyaluronidase on hand. Hyaluronidase is the enzyme that dissolves hyaluronic-acid filler. A practice that uses HA filler should always have it stocked — not only to fix a lump or overcorrection, but because it’s part of how a trained injector manages the rare emergency of a blood vessel occlusion. If you ask “what happens if something goes wrong with filler?” and the answer is vague, that’s your answer.

They’re verifiable and they have oversight. A real medical provider has an active state license and an NPI number you can look up yourself on the national NPI registry. There should be a physician relationship behind the practice, and the injector should be able to explain it without getting defensive.

Their results look like restraint. Read reviews for the words “natural,” “subtle,” and “still looks like me.” Conservative dosing is a skill, and it’s the one that keeps you out of the over-treated look. You can always add more at a two-week follow-up; you can’t easily subtract.

Red flags — walk out if you see these

A few are worth memorizing. A rushed or very short appointment — good injecting takes time, and a five-minute in-and-out is a quality risk. An injector who can’t answer basic questions about the product, the dose, or the plan. Treatment you didn’t consent to— you came in for forehead lines and they also “touched up” your crow’s feet because they “noticed you needed it.” That’s a consent problem, not a favor. Defensiveness about credentials, or an injector who spends the visit running down other providers in town. And pricing that seems too good to be true — suspiciously cheap units or syringes usually mean diluted product, an inexperienced hand, or both.

The questions I’d ask if I were the patient

Bring these to any consultation, mine included: What’s your medical license and how long have you been injecting? Who is the supervising or collaborating physician? Do you keep hyaluronidase on site, and what’s your protocol if a filler complication happens? How do you decide between Botox and Dysport, or between filler types? And — quietly the most telling one — will you tell me if I’m not a good candidate for what I came in asking for? The right injector says yes to that last one without hesitating.

If you’re in Naples and starting over

A lot of my patients found their way to me after a change. Some moved to Southwest Florida; some had an injector who left; and many simply remembered “Brandie” from my years in Naples but weren’t sure where I’d gone. If that’s you — if you used to see Brandie at Dr. Hasen’s Naples office and have been trying to find her again — you’re in the right place. I see patients now at Skinhaus Aesthetics in Estero, about twenty minutes from downtown Naples, and a large part of my practice is still Naples, Bonita Springs, and Marco Island patients who followed the work rather than the address.

Whether you book with me or with someone else, choose the injector who screens you honestly, keeps the safety net in the room, and treats your face like the medical responsibility it is. If you’d like that to be me, request a consultation or call 239-287-1840.