The X Factor

[voxman]

Everyone from our esteemed participating Dr.s to Peanut Gallery members certainly welcome to chime in on this query.

 

When a patient does his due diligence, has good considered expectations, is generally of normal health, and chooses from a recommended or coalition surgeon, and the Dr. does the same due diligence with his analysis, exercising his professional skills to the best of his abilities and experiences no complications whatsoever - how come we sometimes see astounding results, and then also less-than desirable results?

 

Is it all on the patient once he leaves the clinic?

[Td06]

Everyone from our esteemed participating Dr.s to Peanut Gallery members certainly welcome to chime in on this query.

 

When a patient does his due diligence, has good considered expectations, is generally of normal health, and chooses from a recommended or coalition surgeon, and the Dr. does the same due diligence with his analysis, exercising his professional skills to the best of his abilities and experiences no complications whatsoever - how come we sometimes see astounding results, and then also less-than desirable results?

 

Is it all on the patient once he leaves the clinic?

 

 

That's a really good question. From my personal experience so far, and depending on the Dr, i feel that your pretty much on your own once you leaves the clinic. Especially if you have the "less-than desirable results"

[Melvin- Admin]

I think there's a lot of variables that contribute to "astounding" to not so "astounding" results, skin to hair contrast, hair characteristics, level of baldness, I think the important thing to remember is that hair restoration is not a miracle procedure, unfortunately those of Norwood 6 will never have the same results as let's say a Norwood 3 who basically transforms in to a Norwood 1 given the right circumstances. But it's important to remember that we are looking for improvements, I don't get caught up in what the next guys result is cause I'm a different person with different characteristics, I just focus on is my own situation inproving, do I look better from what I looked like before if I do than its a success in my eyes, I could care less what anyone else thinks.

[Bill - Seemiller]

voxman,

 

Unfortunately, some patients have been labeled as non-growers. Ultimately, this means no matter how much experience and skill a physician has, even if he/she did everything to his/her best ability and did everything perfectly, there are rare instances where a patient will have poor or no growth. This is referred to as the "X" factor. The "X" factor is an unknown variable in an equation that typically works real well but in some rare instances, this variable bottoms out and causes problems.

 

That said, there are also instances that a physician and/or his/her staff makes a mistake during the procedure that causes a problem. Some physicians don't want to talk about this because it's uncomfortable for them. But let's face it. Doctors are human being and everyone makes mistakes. The goal is to minimize risks so that mistakes are virtually eliminated.

 

Then of course, there are instances where a patient can mess up the procedure after they leave the office. Ultimately, if a patient administers poor post-op care and doesn't follow his/her physician's instructions, it could cause scar stretching, poor growth, infections, etc. Of course, other things could cause this as well as I mentioned above, but we can't eliminate poor post-op care as a possible cause of a failed procedure.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Bill

[mav23100gunther]

Everyone from our esteemed participating Dr.s to Peanut Gallery members certainly welcome to chime in on this query.

 

When a patient does his due diligence, has good considered expectations, is generally of normal health, and chooses from a recommended or coalition surgeon, and the Dr. does the same due diligence with his analysis, exercising his professional skills to the best of his abilities and experiences no complications whatsoever - how come we sometimes see astounding results, and then also less-than desirable results?

 

Is it all on the patient once he leaves the clinic?

 

 

The less-than desirable results could be because the doctor raked the grafts like leaves subsequent to an FUE extraction

[Spanker]

X factor is l big one. Not sure why, but also, hair mass is a Big reason. We always talk about the number of grafts, but we rarely look a caliber in a mathematical way. Hair volume is huge and based on the caliber and length of the donor. I don't feel like giving a math class now but it is definitely a reason that has a lot to do with many "WOW" results.

[voxman]

Thanks for the considerate replies that responded in a thoughtful way to the original question about forces outside of the procedure.

[VegetasWidowsPeak]

X factor is l big one. Not sure why, but also, hair mass is a Big reason. We always talk about the number of grafts, but we rarely look a caliber in a mathematical way. Hair volume is huge and based on the caliber and length of the donor. I don't feel like giving a math class now but it is definitely a reason that has a lot to do with many "WOW" results.

 

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "hair volume is huge and based on the caliber and length of donor"

Do you mean the donor has to be strong/healthy/show no miniaturization? or the ability for the patients donor hair to grow long (pre transplant)?