Evaluating Patients Outside of New England—What Should One Do?
I often get inquiries from potential patients who live outside of New England—heck, outside of the United States for that matter. I am blessed to have been able to perform hair transplant surgery on many, many of them over the last 27 years.
The first step that I suggest is to have them send me images of their scalp with their “worst hair day” photographed. Combed over hair covering the areas of their baldness is of little value to me. Take images from the front, from each side, from the top, and from the back (to see the donor area). These should be taken with the hair wet or damp.
Importantly, I also need to know the patients’ age and whether they are doing anything medically proven to treat their hair loss: that is Rogaine, Propecia, and Low Level Laser Therapy. Next I need to know what area of their scalp is most bothersome to them. Finally, I need to have a contact telephone number for them to be reached.
It needs to be understood that this type of inquiry does not replace an in-office physical examination and recommendation, but it can give the prospective patient a ballpark idea of what might be involved…
