put to sleep for donor area?

[hairz]

Can you be put to sleep as they cut the donor area, then if needed be awake during the graft placement?

 

 

 

thanks

[Thehairupthere]

It is unnecessary to use general anesthesia for hair restoration surgery. Most clinics use localized anesthesia and the patients do not complain of any pain during the course of the entire procedure.

[largechris]

Medically speaking I don't know if this is possible

 

In practice I don't see the point. Obviously lots of people are nervous about surgery, but by definition you won't be able to see anything unpleasant going on at the back of your head, its not like being in an episode of ER...

 

There could be some 'stretching' type pain for.a few moments, maybe 3 or 4 on a scale of 1 to 10, but please try and keep this in perspective.... Dentistry is probably worse for most people.

 

If you are at all technically / medically minded then I would suggest you will find the whole experience fascinating if you stay awake!

[RCWest]

Most doctors will twilight you and you will doze or be basically out of it. I was wide awake with nothing more than a tiny dose of Valium and the numbing shots, and it didn't hurt. Was bothered me was the crunching sound :eek:

[wb280]

hairz, pain was one of my main concerns before i underwent the surgery. In the end, that was the last thing i could complain about. I must admit i have a fairly low threshold of pain and seriously, there was not much pain during the op. You will have some injections prior to surgery in which u will feel drowsy but definitely awake. However, the pain started kicking in a few hrs after surgery. That hurt a bit but it suddenly subsided late midnight and since then on, i did not suffer any unbearable pain.

 

Hope that helps!

[j1j9j85]

the most painful part of the surgery is the injections to numb you after that nothing hurts... its all good:D

[kathie47]

It is common to use some form of anesthesia, but some clinics take good care of you (with dvs, cds) to make sure you are completely preoccupied while the procedure is going on.

 

There will be swelling after the procedure and some minor pain. This is all normal

[Dr. Timothy Carman]

The risks of general anaesthesia ("putting you to sleep") are to great IMO justify it's use in routine hair restoration surgery procedures. In our more invasive procedures, for example, placement of expanders, general anaesthesia or heavy sedation is appropriate. As the others above have pointed out, it's not uncommon to have the fears you express. The good news is, as was stated above, the local anaesthesia procedure, while not painless, is tolerable, and takes only about two minutes to complete. We offer our patients mild sedatives that help sooth those nerves and allow you to relax and "go with the flow".