Luxury med spa coming to North Cornwall Commons next month

A new luxury medical spa will be opening soon in North Cornwall Commons.

Luxe Rejuvena Aesthetics and Wellness will open Feb. 2 at 11 a.m. for its ribbon cutting at 118 Springwood Drive, Suite 225.

The ribbon cutting will have demonstrations of many of the procedures offered.

The business will be open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

40-year-old owner, Dr. Rikka Banayat, a hospitalist at WellSpan Good Samaritan, said that a large part of what she will provide to her patients are skin consultations and skin care plans for acne, rosacea and other conditions, as well a guided experience.

She said she decided to open the medical spa partly because of her firsthand experience seeing what a lack of self care can do to someone's health.

Her goal is to make sure people are properly informed on how to take care of themselves and what their needs are.

The luxury med spa specializes in aesthetics and internal wellness and will offer services like massage therapy, botulinum toxin injections (Botox), luxury facial treatments using a hydroderm facial machine, IV vitamin and antioxidant therapy as well as laser skin rejuvenation and hair removal shortly after they open.

"It's not something like, you know a lot of people when they go to aesthetics, they go there and look at the menu and go 'OK laser, OK botox, uh OK, maybe this.' But actually, they probably don't know what's the best for them," she said.

Banayat also plans to offer microneedling with platelet rich plasma, a procedure that removes the platelets from someone's blood sample to then be infused into precise, controlled micro injuries in the skin.

She said that the layout of the 2,000-square-foot building was her design, set up to feel inviting and calm so her patients can concentrate on their self care.

Because they deal with the realm of aesthetics, Banayat said that they will not be accepting insurance.

The difference between a medical spa and a traditional spa, she explained, is that the latter are usually run by aestheticians, massage therapists or other wellness experts and offer things like body wraps, massages, facials and jacuzzis.

Medical spas on the other hand, offer procedures using medical grade equipment that can only be used by or under the supervision of a doctor.

"It's not just a mere professional shift from internal medicine to aesthetics, I feel that it is an evolution, like natural evolution, of my understanding of the human health," she said. "Like there's more, there's a lot that contributes to a person having a disease."

"That's the reason why I wanted to be in aesthetics and wellness. So that while you're healthy, we keep you healthy, we keep you young, right? We increase your health span, the time that you're healthy."

In preparation of opening her own medical spa, Banayat has traveled to see how other medical spas operate and received a diploma in aesthetic medicine from the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine, and plans to be board certified by next year.

Banayat has hired two aestheticians and a nurse practitioner, and is looking to hire a massage therapist, two IV nurses and one or two more nurse practitioners. She would also be open to working with other doctors.

Banayat believes that she will be able to see approximately 15 patients each day for consultations, botox and lasers when that procedure is introduced, while the aestheticians would be able to do around 10 facials a day.

Daniel Larlham Jr. is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at DLarlham@LDNews.com or on X @djlarlham.

This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Med spa opening soon: Luxe Rejuvena opening in February