Dr. Epstein’s office does have, perhaps, the largest assistance staff team in the country and on average each assistant already has over seven and a half years of experience. We choose to use a larger assistant team for several reasons. First, by utilizing a larger team we are able to transplant more grafts in a single day. Second, we are able to transplant those grafts in a quicker fashion. Third, when transplanting grafts, none of our individual assistants are rushed even though the entire team is working at a quick pace. The challenge in a hair transplant is that you have two things working against one another. First, you have to rush because the hairs are out of the skin and once those follicles are removed from the skin they are similar to fish out of water. That means that they can live for a while but not forever so you have to rush to get them back into the skin. At the same time, if you rush your people there is some chance that the follicles may not get dissected properly, may not look as natural or may not regrow at the highest percentage, so you also cannot rush. The question becomes how can you rush and not rush. The answer is to have more people doing the job. In this way, each individual assistant is able to take their time and do an excellent job but because of the sheer size of our team, typically utilizing between seven and twelve assistants simultaneously in a procedure, Dr. Epstein is able to increase regrowth percentages while never compromising the quality of the dissection and planting process.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
