Medical Tourism: Good Idea or False Economy?
Should you get a hair transplant outside of Canada?
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in travelling to third-world countries, the Middle East, and elsewhere to obtain cosmetic surgery, including hair transplantation. This trend has been driven by low cost and cheap labour abroad.
Many clinics, especially in Turkey, will advertise very aggressively on social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram, often promoting packages that include accommodation, and the promise of huge “mega-sessions” or “giga-sessions” of thousands of grafts at less than half the cost of a hair transplant in Canada or the United States.
So, is this a good idea? Well, maybe…. but if what you are seeing on your social media feed looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
Many overseas clinics will offer so-called “mega-sessions” or “giga-sessions” where 4000-6000 grafts are transplanted over 1-2 days. While there may be some clinics in the world that can achieve satisfactory results in this way, most mainstream hair restoration surgeons discourage this practice as it is much riskier and can lead to extreme donor site depletion and poor graft growth. Many clinics that aggressively promote these procedures have little or no regard for appropriate hairline design and donor site management and will over-promise and under-deliver. I cannot tell you the number of desperate young patients who have had complications after an overseas mega-session that has yielded a sparse, unnatural result but whom I cannot help because their available donor reserves have been entirely depleted.
This unfortunate young man came to see us after having undergone a hair transplant “mega-session” in Turkey. Note how most of his grafts did not take, leaving him with a sparse result with improperly placed coarse grafts in the hairline and almost complete depletion of his donor reserves.
At Follicle HT, our Level 3 certified facility conforms to safety and infection control practices that meet or exceed what is required in hospitals. Our board-certified surgeons have vast experience in head and neck facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, including hair and scalp restoration, and our hair transplant team is among the most experienced in North America, having done thousands of cases. Unlike certain transplant clinics that will have one doctor “supervising” procedures on multiple patients simultaneously, at Follicle HT Toronto hair transplant clinic, we operate on one patient at a time, and your surgeon is personally involved in every step of the procedure.
At Follicle HT Toronto hair transplant clinic, we also perform all available hair restoration options, including FUE procedures, FUT (strip surgery), PRP treatment, and surgical hairline lowering so that each patient’s treatment program can be tailored to their individual needs.
We understand that cost is a factor, and our prices are very competitive by North American standards. If you are thinking about investing in a hair transplant, we encourage you to consider what is most important to you, and to do your homework. If you do make the choice to travel overseas, then our only advice to you is caveat emptor: buyer beware.
Contact us today to schedule a consultation at Follicle HT, a renowned hair transplant clinic in Toronto. Take the first step toward a fuller, healthier head of hair!
Book a consultation by visiting – www.follicle.ca or call us at – (905) 764-7799