Q&A WITH DR. DORAN

I graduated from medical school, specialized in Dermatology, and worked as a doctor of Dermatology for over 20 years in Russia and Lithuania and have over 40 years of total experience in Dermatology, Esthetics and MA teacher in the United States. I also have a Master’s in Educational Psychology, and I am licensed Teacher of Esthetics and a Nationally Certified MA.

Currently I do not practice medicine.  However, when you have a medical degree and are a Medical Doctor you have recognition of your education, regardless of whether you are a licensed doctor or not. I used to join the Chicago Dermatology Society and Dermatology Grand rounds until my dearest friends retired and changed work site.

Who would know skin better than the person who specialized in Dermatology?  Everyone I knew was disappointed with the level of Esthetics education. For six months I was an intern at a school, which provided continuing education to licensed Estheticians. I realized then that the instructors’ level of Esthetics knowledge was also superficial.

I observed licensed Estheticians in practice and concluded that most Estheticians are poorly trained. Although most of them are intelligent and would love to be great professionals and know more, there was no place to go to, to learn and be properly trained. 

I wanted to raise a new generation of different and very knowledgeable, thoughtful, and highly professional skin care professionals.
By now our Academy has the best reputation as a school of Esthetics and trains the best Clinical Estheticians and Medical Assistants!

First of all, MY personal responsibility for every student’s final result by keeping the high level and intensity of our program, which no other school can match.  Our curriculum is based on medical information and knowledge of Dermatology and, of cause, everything related to skin.

My medical education, knowledge and experience, in conjunction with my knowledge of Esthetics, have helped me innovate commonly used techniques and bring treatments to an unmatched world standard. All our techniques are based on the medical knowledge, anatomy and physiology of skin and body.

Our curriculum is above and beyond both, National and International requirements.

Secondly, we have the most intelligent, ambitious, and passionate about their craft teachers and students. Among our students and graduates are practicing doctors, nurses, massage therapists, cosmetologists, makeup artists, salon and business owners, dedicated stay-at-home moms and professionals, women who have decided to make a career change, or simply change their lives.

Thirdly, our school has the highest ethical, moral, and professional standards! That creates the atmosphere of dedication and passion for skin care! We do not compete with the other schools. We simply succeed!!!

CIDESCO claims to promote Esthetics on an international basis. Our Academy does apply higher standards in the United States in Esthetics because we focus on Medical Esthetics, where CIDESCO has limitations due a franchise distribution.

But the European concept of preparing employees mostly for the resorts where one person can do a facial, massage, and nails doesn’t make any sense. The USA regulations are different, and the concept is useless for an Esthetician who wants to work on the superior level with Doctors at Medical spa.

To obtain CIDESCO certification candidates have to complete 3 separate programs: 750 hours of Esthetics, 600 hours of Massage therapy, and 250 hours of Nail technology and require obtaining a license for each profession.

It’s not a good option for someone who wants to work with Lasers, Injections, Phototherapy, and other advanced skin care technology and dedicate themselves to a medical field! Have you ever seen a med spa offering pedicure services? 🙂

CIDESCO is not officially approved by the States’ regulatory bodies and is not known by employers in the U.S., especially by the doctors. 

In contrast, our program is medically oriented and covers a long list of Medi spa related procedures, including Laser Training, in order to prepare our students for the doctors’ practices and medical spa.

Accreditation is a voluntary process any school can choose. Accreditation allows schools to accept FAFSA loans. We prefer to work directly with our students with monthly payments and keep our cost below other schools’ price.

We prefer to be NOT accredited. Accreditation makes schools lazy, providing poor quality education, because they receive money for students in advance and are losing interest in every person’s future. We are deeply involved in our graduates’ future.

Look at the numbers of Accredited schools. The graduation rate is less than 50% nationwide (our school’s graduation rate is 100%) and the majority of these graduates never pass the State exam (our passing rate is 100%).

We keep our bars high, and I am personally responsible for each our student final result!

Yes, we train our students for an advanced setting and Laser training although according to the IDFPR regulations, Cosmetologists and Estheticians cannot operate laser under their license.

That makes me smile because you can call training anything, but it doesn’t make it Medical or Paramedical because if you don’t have a proper medical education, sufficient knowledge, or deep understanding of anatomy. Needless to say, no one can match the list of the procedures we teach. Other schools offer “Postgraduate training”, after completing the basic program for an additional cost. Our training goes above and beyond. If it was up to me, I’d make it a medical degree mandatory for school owners.

Our school is led by me, the Doctor of medicine, dermatologist and the programs tightly connected to that.

We were advised to start Medical Assisting by the head of Rush Dermatology. The field of medicine expands every day! More and more doctors open their private practices and Medical spas. Over the past several years, there has been a huge demand for Medical Assistants, and it is expected to continue growing.  

The combination of Esthetics and Medical Assisting is winning lottery ticket for the future. It gives any person far superior job prospects and unparalleled preparation for their career.

According to Illinois state regulations a few important procedures (including laser) are restricted for Estheticians, Medical Assisting can offer graduates job security and a career with more stability in their lives.

We are very proud and have great statistics for our students’ job positions!

After completing Clinical Esthetics and Medical Assisting programs our graduates can be delegated to provide all advanced technology, Laser and Injectables procedures.

I think that competition is a key to progress, development, and improvement. I know quite a few good Cosmetology schools. Although they do not offer strong Esthetics and advanced programs as we do, we respect each other and stay connected. The other schools accept our superior position and training in Medical Esthetics.

Our school is focused on Clinical esthetics and has the most intense curriculum.

Unfortunately, a couple of schools are unhappy about our great reputation and recognition as the best school. In order to lower our Google’s rating, they place false 1-star, without comments, reviews under our website and send anonymous complaints with false accusations to the different departments. Even in Switzerland CIDESCO office knows about Dr. Doran, because one school complains that I don’t respect CIDESCO. I do respect the organization but consider it absolutely useless in the United States. That’s my opinion and other professionals’ opinion. I want people to understand the difference and I speak up.

Indirectly they are actually promoting us, since now different agencies and organizations recognize the highest level of education and great final results we provide.

Our philosophy “what goes around comes around” is the best way to respond to unethical behavior of competitors with low standards and jealousy.

We are trying to make the World better by changing people’s lives through our education and ignore envy!

We are licensed by the Illinois Department for Professional & Financial Regulation for not only the 750-Hour Esthetics Program, but also for 750-Hour Teacher of Esthetics program.

We are sponsors of Continuing Education Classes for Estheticians, Cosmetologists, Nail Technicians and Esthetics and Cosmetology teachers.

We are also approved by the Illinois Board of Higher Education for our Allied Health programs.

ITA also achieved the distinction of becoming an M1 Visa Sponsor, which means that international students can apply to study with us. 

The quality of our education is reflected in the fact that not only does the government trust us with licenses for all available programs in skin care, but all our graduates also have exceptionally high scores on the State Licensing Test.

Moreover, Illinois State Agencies have approved us for training unemployed women.

Of course, the majority our girls are American. But we accept international students, too, and welcome all ambitious people from other countries to become a part of our loving family!

More diversity means more experience and versatility!

We have the most intelligent and ambitious students: some who drive from far, from neighboring states, some move from other states to attend school, and some come from other countries.

We welcome all to our elite Academy where we provide a professional, disciplined but loving environment!