Reviews you can trust, from real people like you.
How it works
- Our highly-trained Review Moderation team evaluates all reviews before they're published to ensure they're written by people like you and not a member of a doctor's office.
- This multi-step process takes up to 24 hours from review submission to publication.
- Doctors can't pay to have reviews removed or hidden.
- Reviews are only removed at the reviewer's request or if they violate our Terms of Service.
If you have questions or believe we should re-evaluate a published review, let us know.
Sort by:
*Treatment results may vary
Updated pictures. hope it helps. Looks…
Updated pictures. hope it helps. Looks like most of the growth will start after 3 months, so keeping my fingers crossed. Will continue to update periodically.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Adding pictures from before and shortly…
Adding pictures from before and shortly after. As noted before it is perfectly fine to go back to work the day after the procedure, but having a few days of recovery would help. After about a month the growth is pretty sparse. Will post more pics later.
40-50 YO Artas 3000 FUE grafts
Considered the transplant procedure for more than 2 years. My classification was probably Norwood IIb or III, but never classified officially. Finally decided to go ahead with it last November (2016). Decided to go with Dr. Berman in Palo Alto as he was close to home and was one of the original advisors for Artas and was highly involved with the robot development. Once I set the date, I went many sleepless nights with anxiety as to how my looks will change and what will my colleagues/friends will think about me. The anxiety and stress was quite bad leading up to the day of the surgery.
Decided to go with 3000 grafts of FUE as recommended by the physician. 28grafts/cm2 density up front and 21/cm2 in the crown.
Meant to be 2 day procedure. First day to harvest and implant about 1500 grafts up front rinse and repeat the same on the 2nd day.
Day 1:
Arrived for surgery at 7:30 am. Had to eat a healthy breakfast to handle the Vicodin and the anxiety pill before the morning. Took about 20mins to do the prep and decided on the area of implant. Doctor programmed the implant area on Artas and the density.
First step was for Artas to make about 1500 incisions up front, getting the area ready for implant as soon as the grafts are ready later. Can't let the grafts stand around too long.
Nurses injected the area around the front implant area with Lidocaine. They also injected two right above the eye brows. This was probably the most painful part of the entire procedure. Not because of the syringe itself but the Lidocaine that burns as it is injected. On a scale of 1-10, I thought the pain was about 9. Mostly because of the repeated injections.
Once they tested the area to be numb, the extraction started. It occurred in grids at a time, so you get some break in between. I was trying to watch reruns of 'Silicon Valley' on my iPad. I could watch iPad and check emails through most part of the procedure. Once all the extraction were complete, we stopped for lunch and then the implant started. The implantation was manually done by the nurses (two of them working at a time). Took about 4 hrs or so to complete the 1500 implants.
Uber'ed my way back home.
Day2:
More or less the same as day 1. Except now the doctor had to manually make the incisions in the crown area, as Artas system cannot do so in the crown area. Then the extraction started using Artas and 1500 more grafts extracted. The implant procedure was same as Day 1.
I was given a surgeon's cap to wear on the way home. And sheets to protect pillows while sleeping.
First few days you sleep with your head elevated to reduce the blood pressure in your scalp. I didn't really have trouble sleeping, thought the Acetaminophen with Codeine helped a bit the first day. I didn't really need any pain killers after first night, but I may have taken a regular Tylenol as needed a couple of times.
Day after procedure: The trick now was, I had to be at work the very next day and was figuring out how to go to work without exposing my bloody scalp. I bought one of those Flex-fit baseball caps (in advance from Amazon), which covers the back of your head fully. I removed the elastic lining around the rim of the cap, so it fit on my head loosely. The top was not touching my implanted area, the back was touching the donor area, which didn't bother me. So essentially for me it was life as usual beginning the day after the procedure. But though if you can afford to take a few days off, that may be the best.
7-10 days Post: About 7 days after the procedure the little black scabs (produced by each individual implant) will start falling off. Some of them fell off with the little hair attached to it, but apparently by then the root had set inside the scalp, so the tip of hair falling off is ok. By 10th day all the scabs had fallen off and you can walk outside without a hat. Even the donor area is healed well by now (see pics).
I guess most of the hair falls off after the implant but will slowly grow back over several months, so will post my progress over time. For now (weeks after the procedure), the hair is pretty thin, which is actually good since it doesn't look very obvious that something was done to my scalp.
I am quite happy with my doctor (Dr. Berman) and the staff. They were very professional all the procedure and the consultations before and after the procedure. Highly recommended.
Will post updates in the future
Decided to go with 3000 grafts of FUE as recommended by the physician. 28grafts/cm2 density up front and 21/cm2 in the crown.
Meant to be 2 day procedure. First day to harvest and implant about 1500 grafts up front rinse and repeat the same on the 2nd day.
Day 1:
Arrived for surgery at 7:30 am. Had to eat a healthy breakfast to handle the Vicodin and the anxiety pill before the morning. Took about 20mins to do the prep and decided on the area of implant. Doctor programmed the implant area on Artas and the density.
First step was for Artas to make about 1500 incisions up front, getting the area ready for implant as soon as the grafts are ready later. Can't let the grafts stand around too long.
Nurses injected the area around the front implant area with Lidocaine. They also injected two right above the eye brows. This was probably the most painful part of the entire procedure. Not because of the syringe itself but the Lidocaine that burns as it is injected. On a scale of 1-10, I thought the pain was about 9. Mostly because of the repeated injections.
Once they tested the area to be numb, the extraction started. It occurred in grids at a time, so you get some break in between. I was trying to watch reruns of 'Silicon Valley' on my iPad. I could watch iPad and check emails through most part of the procedure. Once all the extraction were complete, we stopped for lunch and then the implant started. The implantation was manually done by the nurses (two of them working at a time). Took about 4 hrs or so to complete the 1500 implants.
Uber'ed my way back home.
Day2:
More or less the same as day 1. Except now the doctor had to manually make the incisions in the crown area, as Artas system cannot do so in the crown area. Then the extraction started using Artas and 1500 more grafts extracted. The implant procedure was same as Day 1.
I was given a surgeon's cap to wear on the way home. And sheets to protect pillows while sleeping.
First few days you sleep with your head elevated to reduce the blood pressure in your scalp. I didn't really have trouble sleeping, thought the Acetaminophen with Codeine helped a bit the first day. I didn't really need any pain killers after first night, but I may have taken a regular Tylenol as needed a couple of times.
Day after procedure: The trick now was, I had to be at work the very next day and was figuring out how to go to work without exposing my bloody scalp. I bought one of those Flex-fit baseball caps (in advance from Amazon), which covers the back of your head fully. I removed the elastic lining around the rim of the cap, so it fit on my head loosely. The top was not touching my implanted area, the back was touching the donor area, which didn't bother me. So essentially for me it was life as usual beginning the day after the procedure. But though if you can afford to take a few days off, that may be the best.
7-10 days Post: About 7 days after the procedure the little black scabs (produced by each individual implant) will start falling off. Some of them fell off with the little hair attached to it, but apparently by then the root had set inside the scalp, so the tip of hair falling off is ok. By 10th day all the scabs had fallen off and you can walk outside without a hat. Even the donor area is healed well by now (see pics).
I guess most of the hair falls off after the implant but will slowly grow back over several months, so will post my progress over time. For now (weeks after the procedure), the hair is pretty thin, which is actually good since it doesn't look very obvious that something was done to my scalp.
I am quite happy with my doctor (Dr. Berman) and the staff. They were very professional all the procedure and the consultations before and after the procedure. Highly recommended.
Will post updates in the future
Provider Review