Dr. David K. Zipfel - Hair Restoration

Overview
Surgery Info
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FAQ

Selecting a surgeon:

Once you have made the decision on a surgical solution to your hair loss problem, understandably your most critical next step is to decide whom to trust with the task. Here are some helpful, common sense considerations:

Go with an experienced surgeon preferably a board-certified surgeon, who does literally hundreds of hair-replacement surgeries per year. Not all doctors are surgeons and not all board-certified doctors are board-certified in surgery. Any real surgeon will have surgical privileges at a local hospital and, if you should have a problem or complication, you'd want your doctor to be able to access a hospital operating room with its facilites and assistants. Most hair restoration doctors are not trained surgeons - they are family doctors, psychiatrists, E.R. doctors, dermatologists, etc. Know the difference and ask what other surgeries the doctor performs, and if he or she has surgical privileges to do that procedure at a local hospital.

	2.	Ask for a list of credentials, a curriculum vitae. Look for membership in the American College of Surgeons and a full fellowship in the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (AAFPRS) or the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS).
	3.	Don't be fooled by false advertising, false promises and gimmicks such as: The angles of the before photos are different from the angles of the after photos. Truly honest comparisons demand exactly the same photographic angles and distances. If you are shown only the front, ask to see the top and crown regions as well.
	4.	You may be quoted gross underestimates of what it will take to achieve a completely finished result. All too often patients are deceived into thinking that it will require significantly fewer procedures or fewer grafts than is actually the case. Get it in writing so there is no question about what was "promised" at a later time.
	5.	Gimmicks such as lasers and "no dressings" are easy to do but usually offer no significant advantages over conventional methods and are more expensive (e.g. laser) or more risky (e.g. no post-op dressing). A 24 hour dressing is no real disadvantage and can keep grafts from being dislodged the first night after surgery as well as avoid some messiness if there tends to be any bleeding whatsoever (a little of which is not uncommon).
	6.	Beware of doctors whose surgical repertoire includes nothing but hair transplants and scalp reductions (or galeoplasties"). State-of-the-art techniques encompass a much wider and effective variety of choices. Even if you are not interested in anything but hair transplantation, why have the limiting factor be the surgeon's surgical skills?
	7.	Hair "clinics", hair mills, franchises, toupee salons usually employ traveling doctors with limited formal training in hair restoration surgery and who are rarely actual surgeons. They will probably be gone if you have a problem two days after surgery. Your initial dealings are usually with a salesman, before and after the actual surgery. They may claim to have many years of experience and thousands of cases, but that reflects the cumulative experience of the entire franchise, not likely anyone with whom you will be dealing.
	8.	Look for someone with an artistic touch and an aesthetic sense, and one who can demonstrate these abilities to you. There is nothing as unsightly as a poorly designed hairline or an unfinished-looking hair transplantation.
	9.	Look for leadership in the Field - a doctor who is well published or is asked to speak at all the meetings of the prestigious Cosmetic Surgery and Hair Restoration Surgery Societies is more likely to be at the forefront of advances and state-of-the-art technology in his field. These "credentials" should be itemized in your surgeon's curriculum vitae.
	10.	If you have a fairly extensive balding pattern, beware of any recommendation to do the entire area with transplants; it is very unlikely there will be enough donor grafts to "finish" the job. And the cost could be exorbitant. Sometimes leaving the crown untouched and "natural" is more cost effective and a preferred compromise if the donor area is limited.
	11.	Make sure you are given enough informational material (brochures, videos, articles) to make you knowledgeable. Recognize that the quality and professionalism of such informational material is a direct reflection of what that doctor and his or her staff consider quality in whatever else they do, including the surgery itself. A mediocre brochure may be a harbinger of mediocre surgical results. Do not necessarily believe everything you read but do take the time to peruse the material thoroughly so you can ask meaningful questions.
	12.	If you have seen some people with conspicuous-looking or even ugly hair transplants, do not be intimidated. Those were the ones that were done poorly or incompletely. The good ones are those you cannot see. There are a good number of surgeons routinely producing excellent results. Just be careful that you do not fall into the wrong hands. Be sure to reread this page and the curriculum vitae before you go for another opinion.