Why You Shouldn’t Go to Turkey for a Hair Transplant

August is National Hair Loss Awareness Month, and in the interest of remaining aware, we thought this would be a good time to address black market hair transplants. Yes, there is such a thing. And you thought the black market was just reserved for weapons and exotic animal species! If you’ve heard of this black market and you’ve thought about getting a hair transplant in Turkey, we urge you to take a moment and read today’s blog. The experts at Northeast Hair Restoration want to reiterate how important it is to get a hair transplant only by qualified, experienced, licensed professionals.

It is important to understand that there are some legitimate and professional hair restoration practices in Turkey. The issue is that there are also many places that market to U.S. patients that are not staffed with actual licensed physicians. So while a Turkey hair transplant may seem enticing due to the low cost, it can end up costing you in the long run. Hair transplants can be a safe hair loss solution when performed by a licensed and trained medical doctor; however, non-doctors with little to no training promise low prices and guaranteed results, yet deliver terrible results.

Learn more about these illicit clinics at FighttheFlight.org.

What’s All the Fuss About Turkey Hair Transplants?

Turkey is actually a popular destination for male hair transplants. In fact, the illicit clinics that offer these Turkey hair transplants offer all-inclusive packages. They include lodging and travel, as well as the transplant itself.

Unsuspecting patients fall for the cheap prices and false advertising fraught with misleading information, lured in by glossy medical tourism packages and brochures to clinics for fast, easy, cheap hair transplants. While these transplants may be cheap, that’s the only truth to be found in these advertisements. Many patients who have traveled to Turkey for hair transplants have found the procedure done incorrectly and have had to deal with lifelong symptoms that are irreversible.

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is a global, non-profit medical association and leading authority on hair loss restoration and treatment, with more than 1,100 members in 70 countries worldwide. They are concerned about the increasing risk to patients who are lured to Turkey by unlicensed technicians who perform substantial aspects of hair restoration surgery. This puts patients at the risk of misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose hair disorders and systemic diseases, and performance of unnecessary surgery that can jeopardize patient safety. On top of all that, unlicensed technicians are rarely covered by malpractice insurance.

Dangers of Turkey Hair Transplants

From lifelong problems to irreparable consequences, there are many possible dangers associated with going to Turkey for a hair transplant. The black market for hair transplants involves a series of rogue clinics that are staffed by non-doctors that perform illegal hair transplants for men. Some of these clinics go a step further. They employ one doctor to act as the face of the operation and get more people to commit.

As a result, patients around the world are victims of the unlawful actions of these clinics. From injuries and scarring to over-harvested donor areas and irreparable aesthetics, the results can be extremely damaging and certainly lifelong.

Such clinics are staffed by technicians who bypassed medical school or other medical professional residency and training programs, not to mention licensing, legal standards, and patient protection regulations. It used to be that the only thing standing in their way was the need for a doctor to remove the donor area, a process that required a scalpel and sutures. However, this stumbling block was removed with the emergence of a new surgical excision technique known as follicular unit excision (FUE).

The Consequences of Turkey Hair Transplants

The consequences of black market hair restoration surgery can vary from minor to severe to life threatening, all with lifetime consequences. Here’s why this trend is so dangerous.

• It eliminates the cost of medical expertise and does not give a patient with a medically-reversible cause the opportunity to be properly treated while avoiding surgery.
• It does not educate patients who aren’t good candidates for hair transplant surgery of this fact before they spend thousands of dollars on an unnecessary or failed procedure.
• It sidesteps licensing boards who can suspend and revoke licenses for medical practitioners who have harmed patients.
• It eliminates malpractice insurance costs due to the fact that these clinics aren’t even licensed to begin with. This leads to deception on the part of a “doctor” to lie about their insurance and licensing in order for an incident to be covered.
• It avoids the costs of required disinfection procedures, put in place in regulated clinics, to reduce the risk of infection.
• It allows multiple patients to be operated on in the same room at the same time, which can lead to cross contamination of blood-borne infections such as Hepatitis C or HIV.
• It poses serious health risks with side effects such as permanent scarring, infection, and disfigurement.

Hair Restoration Surgery should only be Performed by a Licensed Physician

As part of many hair transplant procedures, there are often medical doctors and technicians involved. This is okay, provided that there is a clear boundary between what the physician should do and what the technician should do. The ISHRS believes hair restoration surgery should only be performed by a licensed physician, who can handle:

• Pre-operative diagnostic evaluation and consultation
• Surgery planning
• Surgery execution, including: Donor hair harvesting, hairline design, and recipient site creation
• Management of other patient medical issues and possible adverse reactions
• Post-operative care

The technician should only be:

• Pulling grafts scored by the surgeon
• Loading implanters and delivering to the surgeon
• Placing grafts with forceps or with dull implanters (after the surgeon has made all incisions)

In an effort to ensure hair transplants are being performed by the right clinicians, more and more doctors worldwide are taking the ISHRS Pledge, promising to perform hair transplant surgery themselves and not delegate to unlicensed technicians.

Book a Hair Transplant Consultation at Northeast Hair Restoration

Don’t be fooled by cheap Turkey hair transplants. To book your free initial consultation with the doctors at Northeast Hair Restoration, call us at (774)-500-3896 or fill out our online form. We have successfully performed more than 8,000 transplants and take the entire process seriously, from that first consultation to the finished results.