Looking For Advice From Those Who've Been To Turkey Recently

[bandersnatchi]

I have a date for a procedure wth Erdogan in Istanbul at the end of December. I'm looking for any advice from those in these forums who've been there or near there recently as to the recent developments in turkey. State department websites are all doom and gloom. Bottom line question: is it safe to travel there?

 

[bandersnatchi]

any word?

 

[Assemblage23]

Nothing to worry about you should not leave your hotel room after a hair transplant anyway. The dangers come from sunshine and bumping your head.

 

[dr. cole]

Unless you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will be okay. I was in Turkey in April. My patients at the secret service told me not to go, but I have a training center in Ankara so I have to go from time to time. Get a hotel where they check cars coming into the hotel rather than one on the street or one where they do not evaluate the cars.

I am program chair for the upcoming FUE Europe meeting in Ankara, and I will return again. I have to convince doctors to come, as well.

My primary concern for you remains the fact that Dr. Erdogan will not do you surgery. That bothers me. There are so many better options for you, but the cost is an issue.

Remember that Erdogan recommends more grafts than you need. This way, he essentially doubles his money doing work you don't need. Dr. Erdogan does not do the job, so he does not care that his staff making $800.00 per month works longer and harder, but you go from 2.5 to 5.0 dollars a graft for work you do not need. What I mean is that if you need 1000 grafts and he does 2000 grafts, you pay for 1000 grafts you don't need. Dr. Erdogan doubles his income for unnecessary work. Dr. Erdogan does this all the time. I saw a patient today that Dr. Erdogan recommended 2500 grafts. The patient needed 1000 to 1200 maximum and most likely 1000. I see this almost every day.
Dr. Erdogan is not a plastic surgeon. Only plastic surgeons can do hair transplant surgery in Turkey. He breaks every law possible. His focus is on money and money alone. That is your primary concern. Remember that if the nurse he planned to do your procedure jumps ship for another clinic paying $850.00 per month, you are stuck with the novice nurse. It's a risk you will carry on your head for the remainder of your life.

Now, I like Dr. Erdogan personally. He's a good man. His nurses do careful work. However, he is far too much in love with money.
If you are going to Turkey, consider Dr. Ozgur in Ankara. Only physicians will work on you there. The cost is good. No assistant will do any part of your surgery. While I am close to this professional clinic, I have no financial relationship with the whatsoever. This clinic is a far better option.

Of note is that I'm working on a clinic in Mexico to ensure quality and cost containment. While Donald Trump may not be happy with me, we must rail in costs and ensure that our US patriots get quality care, when necessary.

 

[Dench57]

Unless you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will be okay. I was in Turkey in April. My patients at the secret service told me not to go, but I have a training center in Ankara so I have to go from time to time. Get a hotel where they check cars coming into the hotel rather than one on the street or one where they do not evaluate the cars.

I am program chair for the upcoming FUE Europe meeting in Ankara, and I will return again. I have to convince doctors to come, as well.

My primary concern for you remains the fact that Dr. Erdogan will not do you surgery. That bothers me. There are so many better options for you, but the cost is an issue.

Remember that Erdogan recommends more grafts than you need. This way, he essentially doubles his money doing work you don't need. Dr. Erdogan does not do the job, so he does not care that his staff making $800.00 per month works longer and harder, but you go from 2.5 to 5.0 dollars a graft for work you do not need. What I mean is that if you need 1000 grafts and he does 2000 grafts, you pay for 1000 grafts you don't need. Dr. Erdogan doubles his income for unnecessary work. Dr. Erdogan does this all the time. I saw a patient today that Dr. Erdogan recommended 2500 grafts. The patient needed 1000 to 1200 maximum and most likely 1000. I see this almost every day.
Dr. Erdogan is not a plastic surgeon. Only plastic surgeons can do hair transplant surgery in Turkey. He breaks every law possible. His focus is on money and money alone. That is your primary concern. Remember that if the nurse he planned to do your procedure jumps ship for another clinic paying $850.00 per month, you are stuck with the novice nurse. It's a risk you will carry on your head for the remainder of your life.

Now, I like Dr. Erdogan personally. He's a good man. His nurses do careful work. However, he is far too much in love with money.
If you are going to Turkey, consider Dr. Ozgur in Ankara. Only physicians will work on you there. The cost is good. No assistant will do any part of your surgery. While I am close to this professional clinic, I have no financial relationship with the whatsoever. This clinic is a far better option.

Of note is that I'm working on a clinic in Mexico to ensure quality and cost containment. While Donald Trump may not be happy with me, we must rail in costs and ensure that our US patriots get quality care, when necessary.

Dr. Erdogan is someone I'm strongly considering, his hairline work looks consistently excellent. My main concern is, as you mentioned, the possibility of getting an inexperienced physician on the day. I have faith that his experienced techs do great work, given the consistently good results and the high regard Erdogan and his clinic are held in.

My question is - how much say does the patient have in who works on their procedure? Can you specifically request, in advance, that only experienced physicians do the key parts of the procedure? Does any surgery accommodate that sort of request at all, or does it depend on the surgeon?

Also regarding Erdogan's overuse of grafts: Can the patient insist they want a lower number of grafts if they think the surgeon's graft recommendation is excessive?

 

[GoldenMane]

Dr. Erdogan is someone I'm strongly considering, his hairline work looks consistently excellent. My main concern is, as you mentioned, the possibility of getting an inexperienced physician on the day. I have faith that his experienced techs do great work, given the consistently good results and the high regard Erdogan and his clinic are held in.

My question is - how much say does the patient have in who works on their procedure? Can you specifically request, in advance, that only experienced physicians do the key parts of the procedure? Does any surgery accommodate that sort of request at all, or does it depend on the surgeon?

Also regarding Erdogan's overuse of grafts: Can the patient insist they want a lower number of grafts if they think the surgeon's graft recommendation is excessive?

Dr Erdogan quoted me 2600 grafts.
Dr De Reys quoted me 800 instead and I went with him. I think somewhere in between would have been best but Erdogan graft quotes are nuts!

 

[dr. cole]

That's an excellent point about Dr. Erdogan. Remember that he does not do the surgery. His nurses do. Thus, he has no problem doubling the quote for the grafts you need. Bear in mind that when you charge $3.00 per graft or $2.50 per graft, or whatever, the best way to double your revenue is to double the graft count. When you are not doing the work anyway, it's no skin off his back. He now makes $5.00 per graft or $6.00 per graft because you really needed only 1/2 of what Dr. Erdogan recommends. From what I've seen, his clinic doubles what you need. That's not a terrible thing in the long run because you may one day lose hair in the places his clinic's nurses graft so eventually, you will get benefit from the grafts. To me, it's like buying four extra tires. If you drive the car all the time, eventually, you will be glad that you have these additional tires. If you rarely drive the car, you will never use them. My opinion is that you buy what you need at the time. You can always buy more later on. The only risk is that the cost will increase. With grafts, that's not likely as the price seems to be heading in the opposite direction with competition.
Incidentally, I have a patient I'm talking with currently. The nurse that extracted his grafts left a mess in the donor area and the recipient area. The whole idea of a nurse doing the surgery is just a loaded gun. When it goes off, there is no telling how much damage the gun may do. It seems so much more plausible to seek qualified physicians and ask for a discount when you need it.

 

[M.G]

That's an excellent point about Dr. Erdogan.

I did a consultation with him some months ago.

I'm 22 years old. Without a shadow of doubt I'm heading to NW7, my crown is transparent and very miniaturized and the rest of the hair is very diffused. Both my father and mothers family are very bald NW6s.

Dr. Erdogan diagnosed me with DUPA during our consultation. He told me the only way that he would perform a surgery on me was if I stay on finasteride for another year (I'm 12 months on it now) and if it improves my donor a bit. And if he does the surgery I must be prepared to stay on finasteride for atleast 10+ years.

He quoted me for 5000+ grafts to reinforce hairline and midscalp with density, which I thought sounded completely ridicolous since most people here tought 2500-3500 would be enough for that area.

Now I'm thinking that was just his way of telling me to forget about a future hairtransplant, atleast before I'm 25 years old?
-----------

Now I figure since I'm DUPA, very few surgeons would want to go anywhere near my scalp. But if at the 2-year mark, I see significant improvement on finasteride, would that make me an eligible candidate or should I just forget about a transplant in my life whatsoever?

 

[barfacan]

i havent been there but i did watch midnight express. Don't plan on going over.

 

[hyte]

I just came back a month ago and was completely safe

 

[follicle2001]

Hyte,
Did you go out much or mostly just stay in/around your hotel?

 

[hyte]

Hyte,
Did you go out much or mostly just stay in/around your hotel?

sorry for late reply;no I didn't go out at all just the driver was picking me up from and to clinic

but \i am planning to go back there for holiday next year, looked very interesting

 

[JeanLucBB]

Unless you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will be okay. I was in Turkey in April. My patients at the secret service told me not to go, but I have a training center in Ankara so I have to go from time to time. Get a hotel where they check cars coming into the hotel rather than one on the street or one where they do not evaluate the cars.

I am program chair for the upcoming FUE Europe meeting in Ankara, and I will return again. I have to convince doctors to come, as well.

My primary concern for you remains the fact that Dr. Erdogan will not do you surgery. That bothers me. There are so many better options for you, but the cost is an issue.

Remember that Erdogan recommends more grafts than you need. This way, he essentially doubles his money doing work you don't need. Dr. Erdogan does not do the job, so he does not care that his staff making $800.00 per month works longer and harder, but you go from 2.5 to 5.0 dollars a graft for work you do not need. What I mean is that if you need 1000 grafts and he does 2000 grafts, you pay for 1000 grafts you don't need. Dr. Erdogan doubles his income for unnecessary work. Dr. Erdogan does this all the time. I saw a patient today that Dr. Erdogan recommended 2500 grafts. The patient needed 1000 to 1200 maximum and most likely 1000. I see this almost every day.
Dr. Erdogan is not a plastic surgeon. Only plastic surgeons can do hair transplant surgery in Turkey. He breaks every law possible. His focus is on money and money alone. That is your primary concern. Remember that if the nurse he planned to do your procedure jumps ship for another clinic paying $850.00 per month, you are stuck with the novice nurse. It's a risk you will carry on your head for the remainder of your life.

Now, I like Dr. Erdogan personally. He's a good man. His nurses do careful work. However, he is far too much in love with money.
If you are going to Turkey, consider Dr. Ozgur in Ankara. Only physicians will work on you there. The cost is good. No assistant will do any part of your surgery. While I am close to this professional clinic, I have no financial relationship with the whatsoever. This clinic is a far better option.

Of note is that I'm working on a clinic in Mexico to ensure quality and cost containment. While Donald Trump may not be happy with me, we must rail in costs and ensure that our US patriots get quality care, when necessary.

Your results in comparison are horrific. Technicians aside, his patients are getting a better deal than they are with you. Try getting some glasses and you'll see why those grafts are useful.

 

[GiveMeAccessToMyAccount]

From what I have seen from Erdogan's patients all of their hairlines consistently look natural, and don't have that weird low-density doll head looking effect that i've seen even the best doctors produce. And this is consistent. So maybe there's a good reason why he "doubles" the amount of grafts you need, because it's probably to give you more density and make the hairline look as natural as possible. I mean his patients don't even look like they had transplants even to a trained eye. Just look at his clinics results.

 

[Davidubi]

That's weird, Koray does not work on DUPA, obviously, having a surgery in that case is so risky because your donor area suffer from alopecia and those hair that is going to be cut and injerted in your recipent area could drop. Unfortunately I would consider other option like micropigmentation or capillary prosthesis.

The only thing I don't like of Koray is he usually estimate more UFs than other surgeons.

Good luck!

 

[hyte]

It is true that Koray over estimate the gafts number but it is true that his hairline looks amazing. Having said that, you should take under consideration the number of grafts in donor area and how progressive is you alopecia. So what if you have an amazing new hair line when the hair start to progress further and you won't have grafts left in you donor to patch it up ?

 

[JeanLucBB]

It is true that Koray over estimate the gafts number but it is true that his hairline looks amazing. Having said that, you should take under consideration the number of grafts in donor area and how progressive is you alopecia. So what if you have an amazing new hair line when the hair start to progress further and you won't have grafts left in you donor to patch it up ?

Patch the rest up with 1000 grafts and throw on some toppik. I'd rather have a beautiful frontal third and thinning in the back helped by toppik than thin all the way through.

 

[hyte]

Lol ok if you say so

 

[JeanLucBB]

Lol ok if you say so

Have fun looking like an old man with your hairline made up of 6.3 grafts and 9 hairs. At least you covered the whole area ey bud? May b can patch it up with a few *** and pube hairs later down the track.

 

[hyte]

Have fun looking like an old man with your hairline made up of 6.3 grafts and 9 hairs. At least you covered the whole area ey bud? May b can patch it up with a few *** and pube hairs later down the track.

What's your problem mate ? It's everyone decision, but you probably work for Erdogan would explain your attitude