The hair transplant industry has hit an all time low and as more inexperienced “surgeons” purchase what is being sold to them as a simple turnkey device to offer hair transplant surgery to their patents, they may unwittingly be doing more harm than good, to both their patients and their practices. Take a listen to this compelling “Undercover Tech” segment discussing the truth of this disturbing and dangerous trend. 

Anonymous Surgical Tech:  I have seen things that I can't unsee. And in the last year or so I started working more and more with doctors who have bought into this idea of, we can buy this expensive piece of equipment and go and just run with it without taking time to learn anything or train their staff.

I know what I'm about to say is kind of a very critical statement, but what these physicians who are interested in just buying an expensive piece of equipment and jumping at the hair transplant, what they're being sold is a lie. It is a blatant lie, and it may not be intentional. You can get started with a tool that's less expensive if you just find the right team to kind of support you and help you get going. Then you have monies left for marketing, you have monies for finding someone to do your consultations or help you with your consultations, who knows what's going on instead of just like "Here's some materials on what we offer." And offering them a menu like they can choose what they want, when in reality, as a physician, it's your job to assess or to have people who can help you assess each patient and figure out what the best course of treatment is for them.

 I think we tell patients to do the research, and I think where more in the medical community we need to do the same thing. Not that there's anything wrong with big device companies or these expensive pieces of equipment, but the bottom line is, the people who are coming to you to talk to you about them are salespeople. They're trying to sell you something. As a physician, you need to take a step back, and look at your practice and evaluate what your code of ethics is, and what you think is morally right, and figure out if that device and what they offer align with what you believe.

Doctors are buying into the idea that transplants are easy, and they can do whatever they want, however they want, and it doesn't affect the results. And the unfortunate part for patients is it takes a year to see, for everything to heal, for grafts to be growing. Patients have no idea. They have no idea what's happened to them until it's too late.