Hey Guys,

First time on this site. Read through and found a lot of great info. I went for a consult yesterday with Dr. Pistone in Marlton, NJ and have one scheduled for Dr. Feller tomorrow (chose at least 2 consults thanks to the advice on this forum).

I know Dr. Feller comes highly recommended and nobody realy knows much about Dr. Pistone, but I'm trying to understand why there's such a big difference in approach. Dr. Pistone's educator checked me out with the scope that shows a magnification on the back of my scalp (pretty cool actually seeing the 1, 2, 3 & 4 hair groupings). He said I'm around a NW5 and they would use a long strip (approx. above ear to same on other side, albiet a thin strip) and they would plant 1500 FU's into my frontal and some in my crown, but I would probably have to come back in 18-24 months for another HTP to fill in the crown.

My question is how would he only get 1500 FU's for a strip that size when it seems Dr. Feller would be taking approx. the same size strip (according to other posts) and yielding 3000 FU's? Am I confusing FU's with grafts? Any help would be appreciated!

Jersey23
welcome to the forum, 1500 grafts on a NW5 scalp will not give you the coverage that you will be happy with. On a virgin scalp i imagine Dr Feller will recomend a larger session 3000+ with dense packing, he won't BS you. best of luck.
IH

Hey Jersey,

Glad this forum has been useful to you. I'll tell you straight away, 1500 FUs will be far from enough to make any real change on a NW5. An approximate way to calculate approximately how many grafts you'll need is to take your NW # and multiply it by 1000. I'm not too familiar with Dr. Pistone, but I believe I have read some bad ratings from former patients of his. Use the "find" feature of this forum and look up "Pistone" to see what you can find. Regarding your question about the same length scar yielding more grafts. remember it also has to do with the width of the scar. Let's say your donor area is approximately 100 FU/cm2 in density. You would need a 1 inch strip that is 15 CM long to get 1500 FU. Dr. Feller, if he was gonig to yield 3000 grafts, would end up taking out a 3CM Strip that is 15 CM long. Now, much more than likely, the strip will be longer than 15 CM and not as wide as 3cm...however, it works for a simple math example to show you how it would be different.

The truth is some physicians will not take more than 1500 grafts still on any patient...but this has proven to be a limitation either in surgeon skill, or an extreme conservative approach. I can't speak for Dr. Pistone personally, but many doctors still use mini/micro grafts which are older technology to transplant the grafts rather than Ultra Refined Follicular Unit Transplantation. You would be wise to stick to this list of surgeons in your consultations: http://www.hairlosslearningcenter.org/hair-loss-content...s/our_physicians.asp

Falc

Thanks for the quick answers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but since Dr. Pistone uses a stereoscopic microscope, it seems that he utilizes the more up to date technology. However, I'm not sure if that's the same as the ultra refined FUT. They will be giving me single hairs on the hairline (he called it styling) and the 2, 3, & 4's working backwards. Does this sound like the same as what Dr. Feller does? Thanks.

Dr Feller uses the most up to date equipment and tecniques. when you meet with him you will be impressed, looke at some of his patient photos when your there.
IH

quote:

Dr. Pistone uses a stereoscopic microscope

Use of a microscope for hair transplantation is standard in the industry. Though it's great that he does use one, so do other HT docs such as Feller. The choice is yours, of course. Good luck!

Falc