If you are struggling with hair loss, you are not alone. This condition can impact your scalp as well as other areas of your body. Sometimes it is caused by heredity, hormones, medications, illness or disease. While it is more prevalent among men, anyone can experience hair loss.
Depending on what is causing your hair to fall out, sometimes the loss is temporary, but other times it can be permanent. Types of hair loss you might incur include male-pattern baldness, female-pattern baldness and patchy hair loss (alopecia areata). Hair loss can appear in many different forms depending on what’s causing it. It can come on suddenly or gradually and affect just your scalp or your whole body.
Evaluating Hair Loss
To assess your condition, our dermatologists, Drs. Jenson and Edwards offer several clinical dermatology methods to treat hair loss for patients in the Orem, Utah, area and surrounding communities. To determine which treatment is best for your needs, you may be asked the following:
-How did the hair loss start, did it diminish slowly over time or did it happen all of a sudden?
-What current medications are you taking?
-What kinds of allergies do you have?
-Have you been on a strict diet?
We will also conduct an examination of your scalp and the hair growth of other areas of your body. In addition to inquiring about your medical and family history, we may also utilize a scalp biopsy or a blood test. For a scalp biopsy, we simply scrape a sample off of your skin or pull some scalp hairs to evaluate the hair roots for an infection. A blood test also allows us to find any medical conditions that could be causing your hair loss.
Signs of Hair Loss
Drs. Jenson and Edwards may recommend one of the following three treatments for your hair loss in Orem, Utah:
1-Hair Transplantation
This allows us to take a tiny patch of skin from the back or side of your scalp containing healthy hair growth and transplant it to other areas of the scalp experiencing hair loss and implanting the hair follicles.
2-Scalp Reduction
In this procedure, the sparse haired section of the scalp is removed and the area of the scalp with hair (often of the sides and back of the scalp) is stretched and moved closer together.
3-Scalp Expansion
This procedure involves inserting balloon-like devices known as tissue expanders implanted under the sides or back of the scalp where the hair is still growing. These devices are gradually inflated over four to twelve weeks. The goal is stimulating the skin cells to grow new skin cells as the skin adjusts over a period of weeks. This is done in two parts; the first surgery is to insert the devices, and second to remove them and complete the final reduction of the bald scalp using the newly grown skin with hair.
The treatment method implemented depends on how much hair loss you have sustained. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, please give our team at Kraig Jenson, PC, Dermatology Center a call at 801.224.5200.
