L.A. Hair Doctor
Instruments used to Create Recipient Sites
There are 2 different instruments used to create to the recipient sites, either needles or chiseled blades. These two have become the standard of care in hair restoration practice because they do not leave and scarring, this is very critical, they do not leave any divots or scarring.
There are 2 different instruments used to create to the recipient sites, either needles or chisel blades. These two have become the standard of care in hair restoration practice because they do not leave and scarring.
This is very critical, these blades and needles do not leave any divots or scarring. Other instruments used in the past either created a crater or a divot within the skin where the graft was placed. Using needles or chisel blades allows for normal healing of the skin to take place.
When using needles, 18 gauge and 20 gauge needles are used. The 18 gauge needles are used for grafts with 2 and 3 hairs, whereas the 20 gauge needles are used for single hair follicle grafts. The 19 gauge needles can also be used when dense packing is required, but it does requires the most experienced technicians to place grafts of 2-3 hair follicles in a 19 gauge needle recipient site.
The chisel blade comes in different sizes – 0.65 millimeter to 0.9 mm and 1.1 mm, for 1, 2, and 3 hair grafts respectively. The chisel blade is made out of a blade called persona blade that is cut with special surgical equipment, this cuts the blade in very small and fine portions that can be used to create the holes.
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It is important to know and ask your doctor which kind of blades are being used in the hair restoration process. In case of chisel blades, more bruising is expected because it is made out of a sharp blades.
If the doctor uses needles, less bruising is expected. Another advantage of the needle is that one side of it is hollow and thus minimizes sharp contact with one’s natural hair during dense packing, which minimizes shock loss.
There is some data that suggest that chisel blades may increase the risk or shock loss because they are so sharp and when the blade touches other grafts, it may disturb the hair cycle and cause the the graft to fall out temporally. However, this occurs less when using needles because one side of the needle is open and allows follicles to be untouched.
Overall, there are 2 standard instruments used in hair restoration to create recipient sites, chisel blades or regular needles. Other instruments in the past that used to leave a crater, divot, or scarring are not recommended. We would strongly recommend that you ask your hair transplant physician what is used and what he or she does to minimize the shock loss.