The TRUTH about Dr SANUSI UMAR- Not Impressed

Hair Transplant
1

The intention of this forum post is to show potential customers of Dr Umar the truth, as I have seen a lot of information which I find to be misleading both on the forums and on Dr Umar’s website.

Dr Umar USED to perform his surgeries personally. This is NO LONGER the case. His physician assistants perform ALL extractions- whether it be body hair, beard hair or scalp hair. This is something I completely disagree with. It angered me especially with Dr Umar, as a 5 minute scroll through his website will show MULTIPLE images and videos of himself personally performing extractions, with captions such as “UPunch Rotor used by Dr U in a hand held and directed manner to remove chosen grafts.” It is my opinion that, since Dr Umar NEVER performs extractions personally, there should be ZERO images of him doing so on his website. In all the videos and images I have seen online of Dr Umar’s work, I have NEVER came across a video/image/piece of marketing showing his assistants performing extractions.

Granted, if one has a good read through his website, there is a short passage of text somewhere that states that procedures are carried out by a surgeon or licensed physician assistants, but my argument is that most clients will be much more influenced by images and will not read every single word on his website. For goodness sake the very first image you see when you load his website it HIMSELF performing extractions with his assistants by his side!

There is a wealth of comments on forums from previous patients commending the fact that he ‘does everything personally’ or ‘does all extractions himself’ etc. Obviously, these comments were truthful at the time and theres absolutely nothing wrong with posting them. But as I said at the beginning, this thread is to show the truth about his current practice, not his old (and IMO better) way of doing things.

I have personally been in contact with Dr Umar and he responds to any questions (including my question about who actually performs his surgeries) openly and honestly. I do not deny that. But stupidly and naively, I jumped into a surgery in the past (with a different surgeon) without asking that question. I know that this is the case with A LOT of other patients, and a good portion of patients will not ask this question. I am not saying Dr Umar ever lies to his patients over email/in consultations etc, but IMO by using so many misleading images he is taking advantage of ‘naive’ patients like I was in the past. All Dr Umar does is draw the hairline/where to put grafts, assistants do EVERYTHING else; extractions + placement!

If you are admiring all of Dr Umar’s work posted online by himself/previous patients, I urge you to consider that was HIS work, not his assistants’. In my opinion, all doctors should take the time to perform extractions, especially if their website is plastered with images of them doing just that!

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What’s the date on which you had your surgery and how many grafts did you have done? Photos?

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Dr. Umar did all the extractions for my 4 surgeries, but this was around 4 or 5 years ago. In fairness to Dr. Umar, he is the one who keeps developing these extraction tools (is it called the U punch?) and he would personally train his technicians on how to use them.

It’s worth noting that the old fashioned extraction methods would rely on surgical skills, but extracting with his patented punch device would not require the same level of experience. What would concern me more than anything is potential over harvesting of a donor site but I can’t imagine Dr. Umar would allow this to happen.

What happens in most instances is these doctors are trying, just like we all are, to make as much money as possible. Time is money. By better utilizing their techs this allows these doctors more time to work on other patients. In the end, the patient loses, but one only hopes that the stellar results one expects are not compromised. I certainly understand your concern.

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A highly qualified certified physicians assistant (PAC) works in my clinic, under my direction, performing hair transplantation. This person went through 1 year of training in the state of the art extraction technique known as Dr.UGraft and has worked with me in training other physicians in this new technology. The Dr.UGraft method simplifies the extraction of grafts and reduces the risk of physician error which produces transected or damaged grafts. For more information on Dr.UGraft, please click on the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXHpn17KEl4

A PA must attend a specialized medical training program associated with a medical school that includes classroom studies and clinical experience. An academic degree and/or certificate is awarded upon graduation. Many PAs already have two- or four-year academic degrees before entering a PA training program. To practice in California, each PA must pass a rigorous national examination before being licensed by the Physician Assistant Board, which is part of the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

A physicians assistant is not a hair tech, a medical assistant or a nurse, it is a person that is licensed to deliver medical care under the supervision of a licensed physician. The scope of practice of the physician’s assistant is limited to the practice of the physician that the PA works under. Currently, physician’s assistants are involved extensively in surgeries in orthopedics, cardio thoracic surgery, dermatology and neurosurgery. They are not cheap either. My PA already earns as much as i did in my first 5 years of becoming a physician both in New York and Los Angeles.

My team consists of myself, my trained physician assistant and about 2-3 trained medical assistants. No one performs any tasks in my office that lie outside of the scope of work defined for them by the California Medical Board and their training.

I handle all my consultations directly, and am 100% responsible for the planning of the work to be done, both online and in the office.
While our very capable PA primarily handles extractions, I not only supervise but trade places with the PA every now and then. I inspect grafts to make sure they are of good quality during this phase of the surgery. I design and make all recipient slits. My highly qualified certified medical assistants place grafts into the slits I make. After completion of surgery, I discharge my patients as my team provides post-operative instructions. Using an established
protocol we follow and monitor our patients’ progress diligently, with their cooperation, until their results fully manifest.

When JP contacted me, I handled all his emails personally as I have always done and answered all his questions completely. This was
without his completing our consultation forms or submitting any photos. I assured JP in my email to him that I am responsible
for the standard of care of any procedure performed at my office and would not jeopardize my hard earned reputation by bringing into my team
an unqualified professional to do work that would reflect poorly on me.

I understand that JP had by his account a very bad history with the hair transplantation industry and perhaps is speaking
from the space of a distrustful person. In any event, his accusations are misguided. When he asked that I make an exception
for him, I mentioned that we would use our established methods to deliver care and assured him that the quality of care would be the same.
At which point he stated that he would go to the forums to accuse me of misleading the public based on truthfully narrated
experiences from my past patients and videos of me performing surgery shown on the internet. I encouraged him to show whatever correspondence
we have had since it was not meant to be some secret unless he deems it so. In the over 13 years of my FUE and BHT practice, I have performed all online consultations in writing by email to avoid confusion and for the sake of transparency. I am confident that working with my team we can repair JP’s situation if upon complete evaluation I determine he is a good candidate for our procedure like I have for my repair cases over the years:
https://dru.com/hair-surgery/patient-results-hair-transplant-repair-los-angeles/

Regardless of where he gets his procedure, I wish him success and hope that he finds the peace he deserves when the work manifests.

5

Dr Umar,

I appreciate your reply.

For a long time now, without contacting you, I knew of your amazing work in the past and in my mind you were going to be the surgeon who would ‘save’ my situation when the time came. The time came, I emailed you, and I learned that you do not perform extractions anymore. This left me feeling helpless again, as I would no longer consider your clinic.

I understand your claim that using your Upunch device is easier etc, but I am of the opinion that the doctor should perform extractions, period. You created the device, you have decades of experience with it, and if I was to be paying 8 dollars a graft… I would want you to use it. It’s that simple.

I would never spend tens of thousands of dollars to let a surgeon’s physician assistant perform my extractions. Say I needed 8,000 grafts, without knowing your exact pricing I would bet its upwards of 50,000 dollars. 50,000 dollars to have a surgeon draw a hairline and make incisions and let an assistant do the rest? It just is not good enough in my opinion, and as I stated in the very first sentence of this thread, I believe people have a right to be warned against it.