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Setting
your Expectations
Considering a hair transplant?
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A significant number of hair restoration surgeries performed at the
New Hair Institute involve some type of corrective procedures to fix
bad hair transplants, scalp reductions and flaps performed by other
physicians. The following describes the approach that NHI physicians
use when dealing with patients who need repair work.
Improperly performed hair restoration surgeries present a series of
unique problems that often must be solved by deviating from the normal
rules that would apply to performing a hair transplant on a "virgin"
scalp. Repairs require far more experience and creativity on the part
of the surgeon than when performing the original hair transplants. In
repair procedures, the surgeon encounters a multitude of problems that
often exist simultaneously. Unfortunately, the improper techniques that
cause the cosmetic defects are often the same ones that limit the repair.
Fundamental to all repair work, therefore, is establishing a series
of goals that are carefully prioritized so that, in the event they cannot
all be met, the ones most critical to the patient's appearance are dealt
with first.
The patient who has had bad hair transplants experience is often depressed,
angry and distrusting. Therefore, the surgeon attempting a repair has
a number of challenges, not all surgical. He must restore confidence
in a patient who feels he was betrayed by the medical establishment
and who often wishes he had never started with the hair restoration
process in the first place. The physician must establish trust in a
patient who had been misled, establish new goals when previous goals
had not been met, and explain a sequence of new procedures when the
prior ones were not well understood. The doctor must also convince his
patient to embark on a new series of surgeries with the understanding
that obvious benefit may not be apparent after the initial procedures.
He must plan his surgery in concert with the social needs of the patient
and design the procedure so that specific styling and grooming techniques
can be used to enhance the surgery. The doctor must then perform surgery
with techniques individualized to the particular patient and deal with
problems that cannot always be anticipated before the surgery is begun.
Restoration work on bad hair transplants is a creative endeavor that
combines communication, surgical and aesthetic skills to achieve the
patient's goals.
Although many problem results reflect procedures that were routinely
performed prior to the advent of the use of small grafts, the availability
of "modern techniques" alone does not protect the patient
against bad work. Errors in surgical and aesthetic judgment, performing
procedures on non-candidates, and operating on patients with unrealistic
expectations, still remain major problems. Therefore, extreme care in
selecting a surgeon is just as important today even though, as a whole,
physicians are performing better surgery.
The use of very small grafts, and now follicular unit grafts, eliminates
many of the more blatant problems associated with the older procedures.
However, there are "cost cutting" techniques used by some
physicians that create new areas of concern. One of these is the automated
"graft cutter" where thin slivers of donor tissue are placed
on a series of blades and smacked with a hammer into smaller pieces.
These techniques appear to save the patient money, however, they unnecessarily
destroy precious donor hair and limit the amount of fullness that can
be achieved with the hair transplants. Even procedures touted as state-of-the-art
technology, such as laser hair transplantation, can cause harm to unwary
patients by slowing the healing process and causing unnecessary scarring
in the recipient area.
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Recommended
Resources |
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- Ask questions and get information on Hair Transplants
in our Men's
Forums and Women's
Forums!
- Information provided courtesy of the New
Hair Institute, taken from "The Patient's Guide to
Hair Transplantation" William R. Rassman, MD and Robert
M. Bernstein, MD
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