hair loss is such an emotional topic that before we engage with it I wanted to know the evidence
was there that there were ample studies that prove the effectiveness and the patient's satisfaction
which is ultimately the most important thing so we've learned an awful lot of the last few years
about hair loss we've learned about the value of platelet-rich plasma we've learned that there
are new additives that can be used to actually enhance the result of platelet-rich plasma we've
learned about the use of low-level lasers about nutritional supplements we've learned about some
of the prescriptions that we've used to use and how we may use them differently and most
importantly we've learned how to put these things together to treat a multi-dimensional treatment
for this so so troubling problem so there really are many causes of hair loss one is genetic
patients that have a very strong family history may find that they start losing hair very early
in age others it may be from medications general anesthesia stress traction on the hair so many
different causes and with as many causes of there are there also are many different types of therapy
so we need to tailor our therapies specific to the cause of hair loss and to the extent
of hair loss so there really are many different complementary therapies that we can use again
in combination to achieve our goals but a plan that one patient desires may not be desired by
by someone else you know there may be one patient that's okay taking nutritional supplements and is
happy to use topical things in their scalp and the next person that's okay using a prescription
oral medicine but doesn't want to put anything our scale so we really want to talk and decide what's
going to work for each individual patient so there are many different nutritional supplements
that someone can use to complement the results that they're getting from platelet-rich plasma
therapy there's new truffaut there's vivid scalp pro this biotin is multivitamins and you really
have to look at the cause of the individuals hair loss and look at what else that that is
present in their medical history that's playing a role in that hair loss such as stress or such as
certain medicines that may be taking or does the person have a hormone irregularity so we'll tailor
that treatment and we'll use these nutritional supplements to aid in the process of hair growth
so a lot of patients come in and they're asking what's the story with these LEDs or these lasers
and lasers were FDA cleared to treat hair loss many years ago unfortunately the first devices
were not all that effective so patients got kind of tired of doing the procedure when they didn't
really see the results today these treatments have become better but we use these most of the
time as an adjunct or something to complement the results of something that's more powerful namely
platelet-rich plasma injections so one of the most popular lasers today is called the laser hair cap
and that's a device that is much more powerful than the initial devices and that's something
that can be used conveniently at home the patients don't have to come to the office to use this and
these recent laser devices are much more effective than they used to be and then there's the idea of
cost okay 99.99% of us you know have budgetary constraints so patients need to know well what
does this cost not only for the initial therapy but what about maintenance when will I need to
come back how often and and how much will these complementary therapies these vitamins opticals
what do they cost so we want to make sure that this is something that someone can deal with in
their life we want patient to understand that this really is a chronic condition and we can
make tremendous impacts on the outcome but it's something that they're going to have to maintain
over time so if you google hair loss treatments you'll reveal pages and pages that show physicians
and other practitioners doing PRP treatments well PRP is one piece of the puzzle but even PRP is
not created equal there are many different ways of getting the platelets that's the PM PRP there are
commercially available kits there are manual kits that are used there a single spin and double spin
there are enzymes to break solution sounds many different ways of doing it so the quality and
the number of platelets we're receiving after we process someone's blood and subsequently
injecting into the scalp is a big factor in how well they're going to respond and that's critical
the second thing is well what are we adding to that PRP are we adding agents called extracellular
matrix a cell bio d of two examples these things not only improve the result but they improve the
longevity of the result so the number of injection cycles is much less and then there are adjunctive
things we may do we may require nutritional supplements we may use prescription medications
we may use low-level laser therapy there are many things we can do in conjunction with the
platelet-rich plasma treatments to enhance those results and make the patient satisfaction that
much better so hair loss treatments are for patients of varying ages from teens to 70s
and 80s they're for female and males they're from patients are very demographic every so economic
status unfortunately hair loss attacks most of us probably between fifty and seventy two percent of
the population so though hair loss treatments differ based on the situation behind their hair
loss the actual need for hair loss treatments is something that many people can benefit from
and and sometimes patients feel like they have to be a certain age before they come in they'll say
well I don't need to do hair loss treatments until 40 or 50 until it's really bad and that
really is not the case the earlier we treat the easier it is to treat and the better it works