Very Unhappy With My Hair Surgeon, 4 Months after

Hi Dr. R!! 4 months ago I had transplantation surgery with Dr. X [doctor’s name removed]. I have been unhappy with every aspect of the surgery (Hardly any filling of my front hairline) 1600 grafts “supposedly” and the negative responses to my many questions following up. What do you know about him? I am Very discouraged after 4 and a half months and many $$$…Thanks!

I won’t comment on the doctor, but I will say that after 4 1/2 months you will not see the results of your surgery. The first and final element of what Dr. X did for you will be in the results that you get as compared with your expectations at about the 8th month after surgery.

Clearly, you have a problem with Dr. ‘X,’ so possibly you did not do your homework. A caring physician should be a critical qualifier in choosing your doctor. Showing concern means that he/she is making an attempt to establish good communication with you. By listening to you, reading your body language, and being available to you after he/she ‘got your money’, the doctor would be showing the essence of the man/woman. By not doing these things, the doctor would show the “Mr. Hyde” from “Dr. Jekyll”. Any cosmetic surgery, particularly one that is not an ’emergency surgery, is a procedure where the choice of a doctor should reflect good market research on the patient’s part. Things everyone should look for:

• A good office environment.
• In the meeting with the doctor, does he engender your faith and trust?
• Is a salesman used to insulate him from his patients? I am firmly against the use of salesmen as their job is sell you on the doctor not address your issues. 
• References from other patients so you can view his art and craft results.
• History with the Better Business Bureau, record with the medical board of the state/country the doctor practices in (license clean of violation, probations, complaints filed).
• Training and credentials.
• How does the medical profession assess the surgeon you are selecting?
• Staff rapport with you, the patient.

Those are things that spell out a good decision in doctor selection. I have always believed that a good decision today is a good decision tomorrow. These types of decisions include the doctor choice.

Now with that said, I suspect that even if you get good results from this surgery (which can be seen 7-8 months after a hair transplant is done), Dr. X just did not make the grade for you.