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PupDaddy

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  1. Your answer no. 1 was my guess, but I wasn't sure. So the graft is gripped with the forceps by the trimmed hairs growing from it, or maybe by the top of the graft tissue where the hairs exit it, rather than from the bulb base or farther down the surrounding tissue, I suppose. I wonder if there is a slit or channel on the side of the needle for the tips of the forceps to pass through so they don't have to let go or re-grip or push the graft at the bulb part to get the graft completely into the needle.
  2. Some FUE docs have adopted the use of implanter pens to simultaneously make recipient sites and implant grafts (e.g., Doganay, Lorenzo, Vories, etc.). The other common approach is to create recipient sites with custom cut blades or beveled needles into which grafts are then implanted (placed) by the doc or techs using forceps. One of the purported benefits of using the implanter pen is that the delicate (skeletonized) FUE grafts undergo less handling trauma than if they were placed in pre-cut recipient sites using forceps. QUESTION 1: Don’t the FUE grafts have to be loaded into the implanter pens using forceps? The video I’ve seen of the loading process appears to show techs using forceps to load grafts into the hollow needle of the implanter pen at the needle's pointy end-– presumably a snug fit. How is the handling trauma to the graft less this way than if the grafts were being placed into pre-cut recipient sites using forceps? (I have a guess, but it would only be a guess.) QUESTION 2: Also, by what mechanism is a graft ejected from the implanter pen’s needle into the recipient hole made by the needle? Each implanter pen has a plunger. Does the plunger itself contact the graft and physically push it out of the end of the needle? Or does something else “push” the graft out of the needle? I suppose my question is, does the graft not experience trauma from the act of being ejected from the needle? Anyway, I’d be interested to know more about this. Dr. Vories? Someone else that knows? Thanks!
  3. It probably means that your post contained a word, term, or name that is automatically flagged for one reason or another. A moderator should review the post shortly.
  4. 1966kph and britboy, You two are behaving exactly like the people that got your clinic banned here in the first place. Your continued efforts to circumvent the ban, and your ceaseless spamming of threads with complaints of “harassment” and “censorship” and accusations of conspiracies and hidden agendas only reinforce the correctness of the publishers’ difficult decision to impose the ban. It appears that anyone and everyone associated with this clinic are simply unable or unwilling to abide by the rules of this forum. Blake has told you repeatedly that the decision is final. Live with it, or move on. Or at least spare the rest of us your harping, and confine your complaints to private messages with the moderators. I can almost guarantee you will find a more receptive audience that way than if you continue down this path of discord. You might not get what you want, but at least you won’t alienate the rest of the members and end up getting yourselves banned as well. If I were a patient of this clinic and wanted to post about it on privately run ht forums, I would first urge the physician owner-operator of the clinic to clean up his act, starting with eliminating from his web site all deception and obfuscation about who actually performs the clinic’s hair restoration surgeries. Unfortunately, he appears to have taken the opposite track. He just launched a retooled web site that is even more deceptive in this regard than the previous one, if that is possible. One can hardly expect privately run hair restoration forums like this one to host threads directly or indirectly promoting a clinic with such demonstrated blatant disregard for truthful marketing of its services. If I were the publisher of a hair restoration forum, I would not even consider allowing posts mentioning this doctor or clinic so long as the deceptive marketing practices continued. You say you want all the information out there so ht patients can make their own choices and informed decisions. Well, charity begins at home, as the proverb goes. You would be doing your clinic a service, and you would be doing patients who you think could benefit from this clinic a service, if you could persuade your doctor to come clean on his web site about his business model and stop stating and implying that he or other surgeons perform the clinic's hair restoration surgeries. Please don’t take this post or others as ill wishes for your hair restorations. I hope both of you end up with gorgeous heads of hair that will bring you confidence and joy for the rest of your lives. In this respect, we are all in this together. Good luck!
  5. Personally speaking, I choose not to entrust my health, safety, donor follicles, and cosmetic outcome to physicians ready and willing to exchange their medical ethics for cash by flaunting applicable medical regulatory prohibitions against non-physicians cutting into patients’ skin or otherwise performing surgery. I would wonder what other shortcuts such a doctor might be taking, other medical regulations he might be violating, and other professional oaths he might be disregarding in order to offer “cheaper” hair restoration. Then again, I do not think of hair transplantation surgery as a commodity, whether the extraction method is FUE or strip. Marketing it as such, where patients are merely consumers of a fungible product and the lowest price carries the day, is not the mindset I want of the doctor and clinic that will perform my hair restoration. Surgical hair restoration is cosmetic surgery requiring, when practiced expertly, a combination of artistry, surgical skill, and medical judgment. I am not buying a pound of sugar. I am retaining the professional services of a surgical artist – one who is ably and appropriately assisted by technicians, nurses, and/or physician’s assistants in accordance with the medical regulations governing him and the locale where he practices. I don’t see the pricing of the “budget” Turkish FUE clinics as a virtue. I see it as an exploitation of an undiscerning market of predominantly younger men wanting a hair transplant on the cheap, by physicians far too eager to sell their medical ethics for a piece of this pie. As for FUE practice in the United States, the U.S. is one of the most expensive places in the world for a physician to privately practice medicine. One would expect to pay more for cosmetic surgery in the U.S. than in other countries, more so if one wants their surgery performed by a top practitioner. I’m not really sure what the debate is, unless it’s to argue that U.S. doctors should follow the lead of some of their Turkish counterparts, flaunt their state’s medical regulations, set up technician FUE mills, and become front men for a clinic operating in the margins of legality or clearly over line. As for britboy's and 1966kph's continued complaints about their clinic (meaning the clinic they went to) having been banned here, theirs is not the only clinic to have suffered this fate. Other surgeons and clinic have been banned for similar, repeated violations of the rules and for other reasons. The most recent I recall was an FUT-only clinic at the time, so you can set aside wild conspiracy theories about the moderators banning your clinic to protect FUT clinics. My understanding is that their clinic was banned for repeated lying and improper promotion, and for chronically disrupting this forum and disparaging its members, moderators, and sponsoring physicians. Not for nothing, but last I checked, their clinic continues to lure in patients with deceptive representations on the clinic's web site implying, or stating outright that the patient's FUE transplant will be performed by a renowned ht physician.
  6. Congrats Pcrudence! Looking great. That's a lot of cosmetic improvement for only 1324 grafts.
  7. KO, I didn't know that about Dr. Doganay. Thanks for letting us know.
  8. Wylie, It really depends on which clinic you're talking about. In Turkey there are reportedly hundreds of technician-only FUE clinics, where technicians perform the entire surgery (extractions, graft incisions, graft insertions) and the doctor plays no hands-on role and is not even in the operating room (1966kph recently had his FUE transplant done at one such clinic). The doctor uses his license and name as a "supervisor" of the FUE surgeries performed at the clinic. In terms of actual involvement, at most, the doctor will do the pre-surgery consult with patients and mark the hairline and transplant areas with a pen. The rest is all technician work. None of the Turkish/European doctors and clinics recommended here operate in this way. At a bare minimum, the doctor will personally cut each graft recipient incision site -- which is where the artistry and surgical expertise for FUE hair transplantation really comes into play, imo. Most FUE clinics outside the United States, including the majority of the Turkish/European docs recommended here, have technicians do the FUE extractions from the donor (using a handheld motorized punch), and technicians usually do most or all of the graft insertions into the graft recipient sites cut by surgeon, as has long been one of the customary roles of technicians in FUT transplant work. However, there are still a few docs in Turkey/Europe who do the FUE extractions themselves in whole or in part. I believe one such doc is Dr. Emre Karadeniz (recommended here), if I'm not mistaken.
  9. FBO, I'm still confused by what you mean when you say that two different people (presumably technicians) "worked on me" and that you don't want to pay repair costs to "someone that has $11 an hour tech's doing the work." Can you clarify what "work" the technicians did? I ask because it sounds like they performed the tasks that technicians typically perform for strip procedures: 1) dissect the strip into grafts, and 2) insert/place/seat the grafts into the recipient incisions that have been cut by the surgeon. Often a clinic's technicians are divided into teams, each with their own specialty: one team dissects strips into grafts (using high powered microscopes), and another team inserts/places/seats grafts into the surgeon's pre-cut recipient incisions. This is pretty much the standard protocol for all clinics that perform strip procedures, so you might have to live with what you've got if you're unwilling to pay a surgeon and clinic to repair you that follows this protocol. You MIGHT could get Dr. Konior to personally place/insert/seat some of the grafts for you in the frontmost areas of the temples/hairline (he is about the only ht doc of note that still does this to my knowledge), but I think you'll find that all hit docs have their techs place/seat/insert grafts in the surgeon-cut recipient sites. If this puts you off, you might consider an FUE consultation with Dr. Vories. He uses implanter pens for the grafts, which are used to simultaneously cut the recipient hole and implant a graft in it. However, even with this procedure, the technicians handle all the extracted grafts because their task is to load the implanter pens with the grafts, one graft per pen on a rotating basis -- a delicate procedure itself due to the relatively fragile nature of FUE grafts. The techs will also be involved with "pulling" the grafts out of your donor area with surgical tweezers after the doctor has punched each of them with a punch. Good luck!
  10. Really nice work, Dr. Umar! You might be the first ht surgeon to have a song written for them.
  11. Good catch, Joe, and good questions. I think you're right that this appears to have been a low density transplant, and that in the 3 years since it was done the patient has lost more native hair. Without pre-op photos it is really difficult to judge, but based on his 2012 9-month post-op photos, the OP appears to have gotten about what would be expected for the number of grafts that were transplanted, which amounted to only 675/725 grafts per side. I question why such a low density transplant was done (although the wave/curl in his hair at the longer length he was wearing it at the time did aid cosmetically), and like you, I'd be interested to know whether the OP was advised to take Fin and has done so.
  12. This particular patient had quite a good existing forelock. The transplant work appears to have been done mostly at the corners and behind, without any lowering of the hairline being necessary. If that is your situation, such that you only need 1,500 grafts to put you right, you are a lucky man indeed.
  13. I think you partially answered your own question: The patient had a pretty strong foundation to start with, but it was visually minimized by wetting the patient's hair in the "before" pics. Don't get me wrong. The work itself is top notch, maybe some of the more refined work I've seen from Dr. Erdogan. But the circumstances mentioned make it difficult to assess whether this was a dramatic transformation or more of a shoring up situation (the relatively small number of grafts transplanted suggests the latter). Either way, he certainly has enviable hair now.
  14. FBO, Following up to what Blake said, the standard protocol for FUT strip surgery is: 1. The surgeon, in consultation with the patient, marks the proposed hairline and demarcations of the transplant areas; 2. The surgeon injects the patient's donor zone with local anesthetic; 3. The surgeon surgically removes the strip from the back of your head and then commences suturimg and/or surgically stapling the wound closed; 4. While the surgeon works on closing the strip wound, a group of technicians get busy dissecting the strip into follicular unit grafts, under high powered microscopes, and sorting them. Once the technicians have a total graft count ... 5. The surgeon cuts the graft recipient incisions in the pre-marked transplant areas; 6. Technicians commence placing the previously dissected and sorted grafts into the graft recipient incisions that were made by the surgeon (sometimes the surgeon makes all the graft recipient incisions before any grafts are placed into them by the technicians, whereas sometimes incisions and graft placement are done in batches, whereas other times a stick-and-place method is employed, i.e., each time the surgeon makes a recipient incision a technician immediately places a graft in it). FBO -- did the procedure depart from the above standard protocol? Note: Occasionally, the surgeon will place some grafts in some of the recipient incisions themselves, but this is now the rare exception. The placement (seating/insertion) of grafts into the surgeon-made recipient incisions is pretty much exclusively tasked to technicians theses days. Based on your photos, it seems that two things might have gone wrong: 1) insufficient number of grafts for the area transplanted, and 2) poor yield of the grafts that were transplanted. I hope this gets addressed and rectified to your satisfaction, and I hope you will take Blake up on his offer to get involved. Good luck! 3. The surgeon then cuts the grafts recipient sites in the pre
  15. True Agreed I disagree, but that is subjective
  16. Best one-pass FUE result I've seen from Dr. Vories thus far. Good work!
  17. Gorgeous work and impressive yield to be sure (this is Dr. Rahal, after all), but would it be blasphemous to suggest that this patient might have benefitted from a touch of temple corner closure/sides advancement? Wouldn't want people thinking he was wearing a hair system, albeit a very good one.
  18. The other side of that coin are the numerous threads and countless other accounts of poor FUE yield, leaving the patient with permanently depleted donor without further transplant options, not to mention a sickly, moth-eaten appearamce if the donor was over-harvested. But, yes, if the question is limited only to which procedure is likely to produce less imstantly noticeable scarring with the donor buzzed down to a 1 or 2 guard, FUE generally wins -- provided that punches smaller than 1mm in diameter were used. The main lesson, imo, is that whether the patient chooses strip or FUE, do your research and find the very best physician with a demonstrable history of consistently exceptional fully matured results using the chosen extraction method. FUE or strip, poorly planned or performed, each have their own serious consequences.
  19. For 1,800 grafts, FUE, United States, I would say: Dr. Diep Dr. Wesley Dr. Gabel Dr. Ron or Paul Shapiro Dr. Konior Dr. Cooley Dr. Vories All are recommended physicians on this site.
  20. I can't imagine you would be satisfied with 2,000 grafts as a NW6. As others have noted, you'd probably be looking at something like 5,000 grafts for a cosmetically satisfactory result. There are several U.S. physicians recommended here who do quality FUE work and perform fairly large FUE sessions on a regular basis. They probably would not do that many grafts in a single procedure, so you likely would be looking at two transplant procedures separated by at least 6 to 8 months. I would suggest you contact the following recommended U.S. physicians for photographic and/or Skype initial consultations: Dr. John Diep (MHTA Clinic - Los Gatos and San Francisco, CA) Drs. Ron and Paul Shapiro (Shapiro Medical Group - Minneapolis, MN) Dr. Carlos Wesely (New York, NY) You might also contact Dr. Michael Vories (Carolina Hair Center), another recommended physician here, who recently switched from using a Neograft machine for FUE extractions (thank goodness) to manual extractions and implanter pens. The last thing you should do is limit your choice of ht physician to a certain state or states. This is a lifetime cosmetic surgery with lifetime consequences. Getting a top-drawer result is worth a plane ticket. Some of the physicians mentioned offer partial travel reimbursements or discounts for out-of-state patients. Good luck!
  21. Wowsa! Fantastic. Truly. Amd at only 5 months! Congrats to you and to Dr. Cooley.
  22. What splitting hairs and wylie said. Hair transplantation is a COSMETIC SURGERY. Not all transplant docs and clinics are created equal, and you will find that each has a different aesthetic and approach that significantly affect the cosmetic outcome. Hair transplantation is about more than just getting some hair removed from the back and sides of your head to grow on top of your head. It is about creating a cosmetically appealing plan, design, and result that suits the particular patient and ends up being as indistinguishable from nature as possible. You can see transplanted patients every day where the transplanted hair "grew" in its new location, but the design, technique, and execution was subpar such that the result screamed hair transplant. Is that what you want? For life? Take your time. Do some real research. After you have narrowed down your favorite docs and clinics to a few, do in-person consultations or virtual consultations (photo, Skype) with each of them. Then, and only then, should you decide to undergo hair restoration and choose the physician to operate on you.
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