She looked into laser body contouring and the results were impressive. The procedure that uses a low-energy laser to target fat cells under the skin, breaking them down so that the body could eliminate them, seemed promising, and in 2016 the opportunity came up to open a little business.
“I was preparing to open up a laser body countering (clinic) and at the same time knowing that I was going to need a little more to be a viable business. But I didn’t want to step on too many toes of other businesses. I wanted to find my own little niche. So I was getting ready to open and I got a call from one of those businesses asking me if I would be possibly interested in buying them out. Absolutely I was,” recalled Mantei, who owns and operates the Estevan Laser Health Clinic Inc.
But as they started making plans to open the clinic, life took a bump. In June 2016, Mantei was diagnosed with cancer and had to give her plans a second thought. While it definitely wasn’t an easy time, she still decided to go through with the clinic. And time proved that it was the right decision.
“I absolutely love what I do. It doesn’t feel like work at all,” said Mantei.
Estevan Laser Health Clinic opened in August 2016. Along with her work at the hospital, it kept her busy throughout the trying times and after. By December of that year, Mantei was diagnosed as cured of cancer.
In June 2019, the clinic moved to the current location at 1236 Fifth Street in Estevan, and Mantei is really happy with it. Her highly professional team consists of an esthetician, a massage therapist and an energy healer.
“Because I am a registered nurse, I want everything done as professionally as possible. We really thrive there to be professional to educate our clients on what we are going to do, but still be fun and be a place they are happy to come to,” said Mantei.
The list of services and procedures offered at the Estevan Laser Health Clinic is impressive and Mantei does many things herself.
“I do the body contouring procedure, I do Bioflex laser, which is a more medical-based procedure ... It’s cold laser treatment and it’s for pain associated with injuries of any sorts, sports or just work-type injuries, arthritis, fractures, regenerating nerves and wounds and that sort of thing … And I also do Botox and Juvederm.”
Bioflex laser is one of Mantei’s favourite and most rewarding procedures, in which she is directly affecting how her clients feel.
“I love connecting with my clients and helping them heal. I do a lot of Bioflex … People come to you, and other things that they’ve tried maybe didn’t do anything. I’m doing my procedure and I know that they are improving because of what I’m doing directly. When they come to me, I’m the one that is making a difference for them.”
Mantei noted that people often get surprised by the wide variety of services the clinic has to offer. They provide different types of facials, dermo plaining, micro-needling, hair removal, vein removal, different options of body contouring and much more. The full list of procedures offered at the Estevan Laser Health Clinic can be found at www.estevanlaser.com.
Not only does the Estevan Laser Health have many services to offer, but it also has many other advantages appreciated by the customers.
“We have a professional atmosphere, everything is confidential. We do a free consultation. I think it is important that we are professional people. I am a registered nurse, my esthetician is an esthetician. My massage therapist also has credentials behind her name. We try to make sure that everybody is comfortable and fun in that environment when they come here. We are flexible with booking our appointments,” said Mantei.
But like with any perfect recipe, it takes one more secret ingredient to make anything a success. In the case of the Estevan Laser Health Clinic, this ingredient is the personal connection specialists have with their clients that sets them apart.
“I love getting to know people and a lot of them become friends. I get to know what’s going on in their lives. It just doesn’t feel like work. I go every day and it’s, I guess, a passion at this point,” said Mantei.
Like many other businesses, the Estevan Laser Health Clinic had to close its doors at the end of March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then they were able to reopen in stages staring with Bioflex laser, then adding the massage therapy and finally being able to offer all of their services again. Mantei said this June seemed to be as busy as it was a year earlier, and their daily routine hasn’t changed much since they always were very precise with cleaning.
“As far as operational wise, we always clean our machines … between clients. We always use appropriate PPE. Now I’m wearing a mask, PPE just in general in there, cleaning the high-touch areas more frequently. We are doing a little bit of COVID screening each visit, limiting extra people … just to maintain social distancing. We’ve always tried to schedule people so that they don’t really see each other anyway for confidentiality. There isn’t a whole lot of difference in what we are doing other than a little bit of extra cleaning in the high-touch areas.”
