Are Patients Powerless Over the Techs?

[HappyMan2021]

It's frustrating how you decide your entire transplant and treatment journey with the doctor, yet a seemingly random and anonymous tech can totally ruin your day and cause a nightmare situation. Patients choose the surgeon, but I have never heard of patients having a choice in tech selection. 

Of course there are some doctors who do most if not all the work themselves. And certainly you would hope that elite clinics invest more in tech talent than hair mills do. 

But I am wondering - in general - are there any actions or anything at all a patient can do to optimize the tech work being done and essentially increase your chances of techs not screwing up?

Even with recommended surgeons, the techs just seem like a roulette wheel...

[NARMAK]

31 minutes ago, SadMan2021 said:

It's frustrating how you decide your entire transplant and treatment journey with the doctor, yet a seemingly random and anonymous tech can totally ruin your day and cause a nightmare situation. Patients choose the surgeon, but I have never heard of patients having a choice in tech selection. 

Of course there are some doctors who do most if not all the work themselves. And certainly you would hope that elite clinics invest more in tech talent than hair mills do. 

But I am wondering - in general - are there any actions or anything at all a patient can do to optimize the tech work being done and essentially increase your chances of techs not screwing up?

Even with recommended surgeons, the techs just seem like a roulette wheel...

Firstly any tech can have a bad day no matter how long they have been working. However, the technician having trained for X amount of years on Y patients ensures they have experience that hopefully reduces the chances of things going wrong. 

Another aspect you have to take into account is that the doctor themselves should hopefully do crucial extractions and implantations particularly to hairline, temples etc. and also are responsible for the creation of the slits and the angles they sit at which should in theory reduce the risk of bad angle placements if hair by tech. 

Of course they still have to pay attention but the problem is always there because we are humans. 

[AB2000]

Easy solution.  Don't get a hair transplant.

The success of the procedure depends greatly on the doctor extracting the grafts without transection, and the art of how the hairline looks and the swirl in the crown comes from where the slits are made and their orientations/angles.

The techs just place the grafts into the slits as directed.

[Melvin- Admin]

Its not a roulette table when you choose a good clinic. For example, hasson and wong have the same techs for years, their technicians are even better than surgeons according to Dr. Hasson. It’s a career not a gig, unlike the cheap hair mills. It’s the same at Eugenix, Konior, virtually every top clinic. Techs are necessary and paid well, it’s impossible to get 2,000+ grafts without assistance. 

[TheGreatPretender]

19 minutes ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

Its not a roulette table when you choose a good clinic. For example, hasson and wong have the same techs for years, their technicians are even better than surgeons according to Dr. Hasson. It’s a career not a gig, unlike the cheap hair mills. It’s the same at Eugenix, Konior, virtually every top clinic. Techs are necessary and paid well, it’s impossible to get 2,000+ grafts without assistance. 

You know I once thought that techs were mostly a bad thing, howeaver after reading the views and opinions of people I started to change my perspective. 

Its not really about the how or the methods, sure we may prefer DHI instead of micromotor, howeaver it is mostly about the consistency about the clinic being able to deliver results. Obviously each clinic will have its different methods. 

I personally am more a fan of DHI since it brings me more reassurance over the doctor's skill, howeaver we all know even someone great at DHI can have a bad day as much as the next techs performing surgerys. So I learned that not to be the first thing to look for. 

[asterix0]

2 hours ago, SadMan2021 said:

It's frustrating how you decide your entire transplant and treatment journey with the doctor, yet a seemingly random and anonymous tech can totally ruin your day and cause a nightmare situation. Patients choose the surgeon, but I have never heard of patients having a choice in tech selection. 

Of course there are some doctors who do most if not all the work themselves. And certainly you would hope that elite clinics invest more in tech talent than hair mills do. 

But I am wondering - in general - are there any actions or anything at all a patient can do to optimize the tech work being done and essentially increase your chances of techs not screwing up?

Even with recommended surgeons, the techs just seem like a roulette wheel...

There are surgeons who do mostly everything themselves, do your research on them (i.e. Dr. Feirrera). 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 minute ago, asterix0 said:

There are surgeons who do mostly everything themselves, do your research on them (i.e. Dr. Feirrera). 

There’s no surgeon who can do 2,000+ grafts by themselves. Pretty sure these are technicians.

[jackiema]

If the surgeon does everything by themselves, the grafts will be dead before they even get implanted. I don't think there are any surgeries at all where the surgeon does everything by himself. Doctors can have a bad day just like tech's can as well, don't forget. 

[Gatsby]

This is why it's imperative that a potential hair transplant patient really does his/her research. One of the most important questions to ask is about the team. Who are they? What are their roles during surgery and probably most importantly of all how long have they been with you for? It's not uncommon for tech's to work for several different surgeons.

[JoeMan]

Dr. Ferreira has 3 to 4 people helping him. Mainly they sort grafts and load pens for implanting. He is the only person that touches your head. 

Obviously this doesn't mean he's the best. Plenty of great Drs get results with other methods. I personally felt better knowing that he was performing most of the work though. I felt like it reduced variables to me. His staff definitely seemed well trained and operate like a well oiled machine. I'm sure he'd even admit that they're essential for his success. 

[aaron1234]

Go to an elite clinic, you'll get elite techs. 

[asterix0]

15 hours ago, Melvin- Moderator said:

There’s no surgeon who can do 2,000+ grafts by themselves. Pretty sure these are technicians.

I said mostly everything, implying the actual parts involving the extractions/implantations on your head. 

Yes, every surgeon has nurses/assistants who help during the procedure to some extent. 

[Melvin- Admin]

16 minutes ago, asterix0 said:

I said mostly everything, implying the actual parts involving the extractions/implantations on your head. 

Yes, every surgeon has nurses/assistants who help during the procedure to some extent. 

That’s no different than what I received at Eugenix. Dr. Sethi did all scalp extractions and incisions. Dr Arika did all beard extraction, and techs loaded and assisted with implantation. 

But I had several technicians working on me at a given time. There’s absolutely no way I could’ve gotten 4,000 grafts without them, they were as essential as Dr. Sethi and Dr. Arika. They were also highly-skilled at doing what they did. Some were loaders, all they did was load, others were implanters, all they did was implant. End of the day, it’s about the clinic, not the techs. 

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

Sadman,

Honestly, I remember feeling the same way when I went in for my first hair transplant procedure. I was new to the scene and didn’t really spend a lot of time researching surgeons. I found a local doctor recommended by this community and thankfully, he did solid enough work and it created a solid foundation for subsequent procedures I definitely needed given extensive hair loss I possessed.

But, I had no idea that the technicians were going to perform most of the surgery. The doctor essentially harvested the strip and then disappeared for most of the procedure other than to check in from time to time. So without knowing much about hair transplant surgery at the time, I felt that the entire procedure and outcome was  in the hands of unknown technicians with questionable experience who essentially talked amongst each other for the entire procedure - some conversation of which was less than professional.   

The above aside however, after researching how the procedure works, I learned it was a team effort and that the technicians play a major role in the actual procedure and the outcome of the surgery.

At the end of the day, it’s the doctors reputation on the line and it’s the doctor’s responsibility to hire, train and manage their technicians and nurses to make sure each patient receives optimal results.  That may provide little comfort for you during the procedure if you haven’t learned that much about each team member prior to undergoing surgery.

Keep in mind that at any point during the procedure you could ask to see the doctor and express your concerns. Moreover, I think it’s a good idea before undergoing surgery to ask about the surgical process, who is involved, approximate how long it will take, staff rotation, etc. I think it’s smart to ask for the names and experience of each technician and express any concerns you have prior to, during and even after surgery.

It can’t be scary though. Because the truth is, one inexperienced or untrained technician can significantly and negatively impact a patient’s results. But because the doctor’s reputation is on the line and ultimately has to deal with any concerns, reputable surgeons will always ensure their staff is up to their high standards so the patient wouldn’t have anything to worry about.

best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant

[Doron Harati]

I was botched by Arenamed clinic in Turkey and then had 2 repair procedures by Dr. Maras at HDC clinic in Cyprus, as the coordinator of HDC I can tell you that only Dr. Maras and Dr. Christina do the surgical parts and our technicians are in the clinic for many years, our technicians represented in our website so you won't get random unexperienced technicians, we have Janete Christodoulou since the clinic was founded in 2003, each doctor do only 1-2 paitents in a day.

[NARMAK]

To also add onto all the great points i think it's genuinely impossible for a doctor alone doing 100% of the work for probably anything over a couple hundred grafts to get good results. 

As a human, fatigue etc. is all going to kick in. Having people as a team dedicated to each area is akin to the human body working in tandem to make sure you stay alive etc. 

I one day hope technology might be perfect enough to replace the human elements and risk, but until that perfect pipe dream. I trust in the top clinics and technicians to ensure they follow the doctors vision and get us those fantastic natural results. 

[LondonRamen]

18 hours ago, JoeMan said:

Dr. Ferreira has 3 to 4 people helping him. Mainly they sort grafts and load pens for implanting. He is the only person that touches your head. 

Obviously this doesn't mean he's the best. Plenty of great Drs get results with other methods. I personally felt better knowing that he was performing most of the work though. I felt like it reduced variables to me. His staff definitely seemed well trained and operate like a well oiled machine. I'm sure he'd even admit that they're essential for his success. 

Can confirm what you say - i've had two with him now. Extraction and implantation is done by the doc. Not to minimize the effort of the techs though, they play a vital role.  The techs sort and load. But also, they've been with him for quite a while and have good rapport/relationship with each other from what I can see so as you say, they work together very efficiently. Give it a few years and i'm sure they'll still be around and probably have more experience that some doctors out there. So if you plan on going back multiple times, I recommend learning all their names, it'll be worth your while as they're a lovely bunch

Edited February 11, 2022 by LondonRamen