Who did your HT, a doctor or his techs?

[wylie]

I've had two sessions done in the past 2 years, one strip, one FUE.

 

In one session, the doctor was there for the entire session, start to finish. That level of personal involvement usually means you will achieve superior results (which I did). For the other session, the doctor was present about 20% of the time, effectively leaving the work to 4 of his techs.

 

In order to generate more revenue, doctors are training their techs to do the bulk of the work. I realize that assistance is often necessary, but its real easy to find ways to "outsource" more and more work. And thats BS.

 

If you are considering getting any work done, its a good idea to ask your doctor how much time he/she will actually be working on you, and if they will be seeing other patients at the same time as you are scheduled.

 

Needless to say, one of these guys I wont be seeing again.

 

(P.S. No need to name names, I'd just like to know if anyone else has had the same problem)

[wylie]

I've had two sessions done in the past 2 years, one strip, one FUE.

 

In one session, the doctor was there for the entire session, start to finish. That level of personal involvement usually means you will achieve superior results (which I did). For the other session, the doctor was present about 20% of the time, effectively leaving the work to 4 of his techs.

 

In order to generate more revenue, doctors are training their techs to do the bulk of the work. I realize that assistance is often necessary, but its real easy to find ways to "outsource" more and more work. And thats BS.

 

If you are considering getting any work done, its a good idea to ask your doctor how much time he/she will actually be working on you, and if they will be seeing other patients at the same time as you are scheduled.

 

Needless to say, one of these guys I wont be seeing again.

 

(P.S. No need to name names, I'd just like to know if anyone else has had the same problem)

[kaounis]

My first HT was done by mostly the techs, (placed grafts), the injections,strip removal, and slits were done by the surgeon...On my second, the doc did all of the work with his techs at his side helping, he was seated next to me for the entire 10 hours. I also think that my second was much cleaner and less painfull than the first.

 

Just a thought from the peanut gallery....

[Dr. Ricardo Mejia]

Wylie:

 

I respect your opinion and perhaps in your case the doctor next to you was the best thing. It is possible in some cases inexperienced doctors delegate everything to their techs completely and this may not be the best case. However...

 

What is key to a succesful hair transplant is to assure you have a good doctor but also that he has a good staff. There are some doctors that are not as good placers as their assistants. There are some doctors that never place and do not have the experience. In my case, I personally place several cases and am in there with the patient for several hours. In other cases I have three very highly qualified techs with years of experience that are excellent placers. There is no room for a fourth placer. I have complete confidence in them and they place the majority of the case. I am constantly watching and checking and constantly am refining the case. When they need a break, I place. I have challenged the most experienced techs to placing contests ( some on this site know who they are) and I feel I place just as good. There are some techs that are hands down better placers than me. I have no problem admitting it because my job is to assure we have the best trained team.

Assume for a minute your doctor is not a good placer and is in with you for ten hours placing but he has a more experienced staff member who has been doing this for over 15 years and does a better job. Who would you rather have ? the doctor who is a 'C' placer or his staff member who is an 'A+' placer? Now on the other hand, if my staff person is a 'C' placer and I am an A+, then I place the grafts. Everybody's practice is different and difficult to generalize in this case. There are many excellent hiqh quality techs that do a tremendous job and place better than the physician. So if your doctor has an all A+ team and he delegated, I would not be too concerned as long as he or she was monitoring and checking the case throughout.

[Dr. Mohammad Humayun Mohma]

Dear Wylie

 

Tere are so many variable in a hair transplant that can effect the outcome.

I use to place the grafts initially and then I saw my tech over the period of time were as proficient as I was, so I kept on doing less and less and now I do not plant at all. Though I do check the crutial area of hair line to see if the directions of hair shaft are in right and desired direction. Placing does not need a doctor just a good planter who know the art of being a gentle handler of a graft. Ofcourse th experience of a placer whether a doctor or a tech is paramount importance, but if a tech is as DR Mejia said A+ you need not to worry.

Now in your case the two variables are

 

1) how many grafts were done in first session of strip that is usually when doctor will spend less time with you if he is not a placer, In FUE the doctor would do all the procedure as that is how its done. All grafts are extracted by the doctor himself. SO by default he has to be there.

 

2) Usually the second surgery, if the number of grafts are same as previous, has better results, unless the number of grafts were significantly less than previous surgery and that is usually a case with FUE as compare to FUT.

 

with respect to Kaounis

 

I believe there might have been a difference between one doctor and other or the placers but some times the second surgrey results are better cause the first surgery would have laid down the plan and the second surgery grafts can be placed strategically top enhance the results of first and in my openion the second surgery results are multiple not additive.

 

So some times we can mistakenly give undue credit to the second doctor or discredit to one who did a good job but the impact was not good due to the number of grafts etc.

 

Hope you would understand.

 

My point is one should see the full picture. SOme doctors also do placing themselves cause good and experience tech are first hard to find and second they are very expensive.

 

I have 4 techs who are atleast 8 years of experience and then 6 with 4 years and 7 with 2.5 years of experience.

[Dr. Mohammad Humayun Mohma]

dont take me wrong that I am suggesting that doctors are not good but I am sure if the techs were not good enough then no tech would be hired. some of the great names in HT have all techs doing the job. The end result boild down to the experience and training of techs.

 

I do about 500 to 800 surgeries a year. each tech will have about 250 surgeries experience at the end of the year. If their basic is correct then they have enough work to become expert in their field.

 

Those tech who come for learning to my centre for a week will have 10 surgeries to go through and are ready to do a surgery of about 500 to 900 grafts in 6 hours.