In view of the recent incident involving a hair transplant surgery having gone wrong, we would like to put in a word of caution to those considering hair loss treatment or hair transplantation. Below are a few points that would help in knowing your hair restoration specialist and the procedure.Current scenario in the hair restoration specialty of medicine: Hair restoration specialty is one of the most unregulated of medical specialties. In India – doctors from different disciplines like dentistry, homeopathy, Ayurveda, etc. are practicing as hair transplant. Their basic training and qualification is not even remotely connected with hair transplantation. So how is it that, doctors and even non medicos with no surgical training whatsoever are doing hair transplantation in India? The answer is clear when one looks at the status of hair transplantation specialty in the country. The possible reasons could be the following:
- Emphasis of advertising and franchising over science and research
- Use of unproven treatment options as “state of art treatments”
- Non-qualified technicians performing the procedure for doctors.
- Advent of newer tools and technology
To begin with let us understand what is the basic training and experience necessary for a good hair transplant surgeon:
“A hair restoration surgeon’s duties and responsibilities for his or her patients include preoperative diagnostic evaluation and consultation, surgery planning, execution of the actual surgical procedure to include donor hair harvesting, hairline design, recipient site creation, management of other patient medical issues and possible adverse reactions, and post-operative care—not simply the technical aspects of surgery, but definitely including them”