What is the importance of channel incisions done by the doctor versus technicians?

[SuhDude]

Hi all,

 

I am booking a hair transplant with Dr. Gur this winter. I am able to pay an additional fee for Dr. Gur to do the channel incisions himself or I can pay less and have the technicians do the channel incisions.

 

I have done some research but I barely understand the complexity of what these are. Are channel incisions important to the overall end result of a hair transplant? I feel that they may be important and I shouldn't cheap out but at the same time, this ends up being 1/3 of the total cost.

 

Please let me know any input, thank you!

[Hazy]

If you're referring to the incisions that the hair is placed into (at the front of the scalp), made with a stainless steel blade or sapphire blade, it's arguably one of the most important parts of the procedure.  This is where the EXIT ANGLE of the final hair growth is determined (it follows the angle of the blade that makes the hole) as well as how density and spacing is dictated. 

Now I'm sure that there are techs who could nail it just fine. Just because you're a tech doesn't mean it's automatically going to be bad, the "issue" with techs is that if they haven't been with the clinic for a long time then it's a toss up if they are good. Sometimes techs travel from clinic to clinic (locums), all over the country, and fill in when needed, and their quality is essentially unknown. If the doctor is always making sites, then at least the before/afters can be trusted and used at a gauge. 

If the surgeon just pokes holes perpendicular to the scalp all over, it ends up being very hard to style and looks unnatural.

Hope this helps. See an example of exit angles below:

Edited 18 hours ago by Hazy

[laverita]

Techs really have no place to be making recipient sites in my opinion.

Firstly the medical boards would probably not allow it and there should be some regulatory concerns, and secondly one needs a real understanding of what a recipient site is, needle/gauge size change, density, depth, direction and placing in and among native hair to not transect, usage of tumescence etc etc etc. One problem with implanters that also make sites is the understanding of this that the techs won't be en large have and also one is left handed and one is right handed and they will have a different natural bent on the angles that suits them.

Depth is also over looked and you don't want to go too deep or shallow to have pits , ridging, cobblestones or even damage to blood vessels. Even temple points for example should not be done by a doctor who does not have a really good understanding of them in terms of flush to the skin, fine singles and density needed so imagine for a tech. 

This is a medical procedure and the truth is it is treated often as anything but. 

 

 

[Berba11]

9 hours ago, SuhDude said:

Hi all,

 

I am booking a hair transplant with Dr. Gur this winter. I am able to pay an additional fee for Dr. Gur to do the channel incisions himself or I can pay less and have the technicians do the channel incisions.

 

I have done some research but I barely understand the complexity of what these are. Are channel incisions important to the overall end result of a hair transplant? I feel that they may be important and I shouldn't cheap out but at the same time, this ends up being 1/3 of the total cost.

 

Please let me know any input, thank you!

Just to be absolutely clear, Dr Gur offers a package where techs do the incisions? Some surgeons will offer a different rate for doing extractions versus a technician doing extractions, and depending on the technician doing the extraction work I see no issue with that. But incisions is really a different ball-game. It's ultimately what determines everything about the HT as the previous two replies show, and it's where you want the most experienced person performing on your head (and that will be the surgeon). Also I believe that in most if not all 'Western' countries it would actually be illegal for anyone but the doctor to do incisions.

[Jackdaniels]

there’s a misunderstanding here  !

Dr Gur does the incisions in all of his patients. He just does have different price if he does the extractions too. So it’s the extractions part which change not the incisions part….!!! The extraction part in many well known doctors is done by techs too..

 

9 hours ago, SuhDude said:

Hi all,

 

I am booking a hair transplant with Dr. Gur this winter. I am able to pay an additional fee for Dr. Gur to do the channel incisions himself or I can pay less and have the technicians do the channel incisions.

 

I have done some research but I barely understand the complexity of what these are. Are channel incisions important to the overall end result of a hair transplant? I feel that they may be important and I shouldn't cheap out but at the same time, this ends up being 1/3 of the total cost.

 

Please let me know any input, thank you!

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Jackdaniels

[Berba11]

1 hour ago, Jackdaniels said:

there’s a misunderstanding here  !

Dr Gur does the incisions in all of his patients. He just does have different price if he does the extractions too. So it’s the extractions part which change not the incisions part….!!! The extraction part in many well known doctors is done by techs too..

 

 

This is what I thought and figured the OP might have gotten muddled up. Thanks for clarifying though!

[Matthias]

4 hours ago, Berba11 said:

Also I believe that in most if not all 'Western' countries it would actually be illegal for anyone but the doctor to do incisions.

By that logic it would be just as much if not more illegal to have techs do the punches for extractions.

[Berba11]

20 minutes ago, Matthias said:

By that logic it would be just as much if not more illegal to have techs do the punches for extractions.

I think it depends on the medical laws in each country but in any case lots of surgeons are indeed doing the extractions as well. 

[SuhDude]

8 hours ago, Berba11 said:

Just to be absolutely clear, Dr Gur offers a package where techs do the incisions? Some surgeons will offer a different rate for doing extractions versus a technician doing extractions, and depending on the technician doing the extraction work I see no issue with that. But incisions is really a different ball-game. It's ultimately what determines everything about the HT as the previous two replies show, and it's where you want the most experienced person performing on your head (and that will be the surgeon). Also I believe that in most if not all 'Western' countries it would actually be illegal for anyone but the doctor to do incisions.

Contrary to everyone's disbelief, this is indeed the case. The cheapest package excludes channel incisions by Dr. Gur; the middle-tier package ($1,000 more) has Dr. Gur doing channel incisions. The VIP package has Dr Gur doing the extractions as well - none of the packages have him doing graft placement

It appears this extra cheap "primary" package much have been added in the past year or so as all past posts always include him doing channel incisions. He definitely offers a cheaper package now where he does not do channel incisions


I am 1000000% going for the middle-tier "standard" package with Dr. Gur doing channel incisions but not extractions

[Berba11]

21 minutes ago, SuhDude said:

Contrary to everyone's disbelief, this is indeed the case. The cheapest package excludes channel incisions by Dr. Gur; the middle-tier package ($1,000 more) has Dr. Gur doing channel incisions. The VIP package has Dr Gur doing the extractions as well - none of the packages have him doing graft placement

It appears this extra cheap "primary" package much have been added in the past year or so as all past posts always include him doing channel incisions. He definitely offers a cheaper package now where he does not do channel incisions


I am 1000000% going for the middle-tier "standard" package with Dr. Gur doing channel incisions but not extractions

Wow ok. I don't like that at all and don't really understand it. It's purely a business growth/profit move and not a "I want to be the best in class" move, which I oppose on a matter of principle really. I'd prefer to see him be involved in most of the surgery and put his prices up to suit rather than shoehorn in a cheaper package. You're right to avoid the cheapest option in my view.

[SuhDude]

Exactly why I started the thread and I appreciate the reassurance. I was about to go with the cheapest option - yikes!

 

He definitely is offering a discount option but there seems to be a lot of risk in that.