Another reason why hair transplant patients are talking about Dr. Nelson Ferreira of Sure Hair International

Article provided by Sure Hair International
http://www.surehair.com
Created on January 3, 2008

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Dr. Nelson Ferreira

Dr. Ferreira’s team at Sure Hair international in Toronto use a sophisticated technique to perform the highest quality transplants. By using a “stick and place method,” Dr. Ferreira guarantees excellent growth and survival of delicate follicular units; better densities are achieved; fewer mistakes are made and you can make adjustments in the transplant as you go. To our knowledge, there are only a handful of clinics in North America that offer their clients this method.

Here is how it works. Most doctors and their staff rely on the relatively older methodology of “pre-made” holes. Pre-made holes are when the doctor makes all the holes first and then the technicians place the follicular units into the already made holes. The stick and place method also uses fine needles to make the recipient sites. However, as the needle is withdrawn a follicular unit graft is immediately inserted into the hole at the same time.

It is easy to see some of the problems with the pre-made holes method:

1. It is easy to imagine that if the doctor makes 2000-3000 holes (recipient sites) in the morning, one can easily imagine that some of these holes on the scalp start to close by a few hours later. The technical staffs then have a hard time finding the holes. Also, when the recipient sites start to close up a bit the technical staff often starts to “force” the graft into place. This has the potential to damage the grafts and therefore risk poor growth. With the stick and place method the recipient site is always freshly made. Furthermore since the graft is inserted right away, the recipient site hole is still slightly dilated from the needle. This means that the grafts can be gently placed into the recipient sites with less potential for damage. Since the holes are made and the grafts are inserted at the same time, the technical staffs does not have to look for the holes, they are making them as the transplant progresses.
2. When the doctor makes the recipient sites, there is always some bleeding. The recipient sites are small and easily obscured by even small amounts of blood. What this means is that even the best doctors have a hard time making holes when there is blood because it is so difficult to see. This may mean the recipient sites may be made too closely together for grafts to be placed or often too far apart. With the stick and place method, the needle making the hole is left in place until the very last moment when the graft is inserted. This creates a bit of a plug which limits the bleeding. The recipient sites are made with clear visualization and the grafts can be inserted carefully into any and all available spaces.
3. Once a hole is made with the pre-made technique it cannot be reversed. What this means is that there is no chance to refine the transplant as it progresses. The stick and place method allows the technical staff to fill in any empty spaces, touch up certain areas, put grafts in between other grafts or change the transplant according to the patient’s wishes. Since most transplants take at least eight hours, the doctor and the patient may sometimes see something in the transplant that was not obvious before some of the grafts were in place. The stick and place method allows changes to be made as the transplant is happening in real time. It is similar to a professional hockey team who starts the game with game plan but halfway through the game realize they need to change strategies to win. With pre-made holes these changes cannot be made if the hole is already made.

New transplant technique increases density by over 25% and guarantees better growth.

1. The stick and place method also allows for good density since grafts can be placed one next to each other as the transplant is happening. The grafts cannot fit into holes that are too close together since there may not be enough intervening tissue. This is always a problem with pre-made holes. The stick and place method avoids this problems since the recipient sites are made right beside grafts that are already sitting in place so it is easy to see where the next graft can fit.
2. Another challenge with pre-made holes is that sometimes when grafts are already in place, the technical staff may accidentally put another graft into the same hole. This complication is known as “piggy backing.” This means that a graft is literally pushed on top of a graft that is already in a hole. This complication is avoided when the recipient sites are made simultaneously.

Highly trained staff makes it possible.

Are there any drawbacks with the stick and place method? Well, not really. Dr. Ferreira does use a small number of pre-made holes to create the perfectly natural "Uni-Strand" hairline. He also uses a small number of pre-made holes to help the technical staff orient themselves with respect to angle and orientation of the grafts in order to guide placing the grafts in critical areas. Dr. Ferreira personally supervises the transplant and checks for quality control. With the stick and place method you need a very well trained staff who is committed to the highest quality work. Sure Hair International has been performing state of the art follicular unit transplants for almost fifteen years. We specialize in hair transplants. It’s what we do full time. Dr. Ferreira and his staff are committed to giving patients the highest quality state of the art hair transplants with a personal touch that says we care.