Male pattern baldness or androgenetic alopecia leads to hair loss on the scalp. It occurs when the amounts of hormones shift over the lifespan of a man, and particularly in later years in life. Though hair loss is still a common part of the ageing phase for millions of men around the world, it may be psychologically and emotionally distressing, and they can undergo or seek a range of therapies and treatments. Nutritional disorders, bad nutrition, health problems, certain neurological and hormonal factors are other reasons lead to hair loss.
The Norwood scale or the Hamilton-Norwood scale is the leading assessment method used to assess the degree of male baldness and hair loss patterns. It uses a scale of 1 to 7 baldness patterns as a measure. The Norwood scale makes easy-to-use reference photos where varying phases of balding were identified. It is considered as the most widely used by doctors’ measure when addressing male pattern baldness. Norwood scale helps to discover the degree of hair loss, address appropriate treatment, and evaluation of the results.
Norwood 5 scale is considered as an advanced stage of baldness in men. At this stage the baldness pattern can be explained as a few to no hair left in the crown region. The hairline and crown areas are divided by extremely sparse few hairs, and the bridge that linked the hairline and crown has narrowed and thinned and the classic horseshoe pattern becomes more visible.
When someone is diagnosed as Norwood 5th stage, it might refer that he is at a critical point of going bald. But also, it is important to understand it does not mean that it is going to lead to complete baldness if a proper procedure was taken by both the doctors and the person who was diagnosed with the 5th stage of Norwood. Generally, at this point the most efficient treatment is a Hair Transplant procedure to restore the hair again.
At this stage stopping the balding becomes more difficult to treat by traditional treatments like Minoxidil effectively. When reaching this stage, you might have a few years of hair loss stability, nevertheless it probably will develop to an advanced form of baldness on the Norwood scale if no proper medical intervention was taken.
At this stage, it cannot be determined the exact period that a person can have a stable form of hair. It might last for a few months or a few years according to the nature of the hair loss problem itself as well as environmental, physical and physiological factors. After that, It will definitely continue to an advanced shape of hair loss if no proper treatment was taken.
As Norwood 5 is considered an advanced stage it certainly needs more grafts to be transplanted to cover the bald areas when it compares with the early stages. In general, at this stage, it might take 1,800 to 2,200 grafts for the front areas and 1,000 to 1,500 grafts for the crown. And in some advanced cases of Norwood 5 it might take 2500 to 3200 or more grafts. It is important to understand that the exact number of grafts needed to transplant can be determined by seeing and consulting with a specialist doctor.
Sure, in fact it is the most suitable procedure to be done at this stage. The faster you take action the more you prevent your hair going balding. Generally, at this stage doctors suggest undergoing hair transplant because of its effectiveness of restoring lost hair and preventing advanced hair loss. Nearly most of the hair transplant surgeries have excellent results at this stage when a proper hair transplant method is applied. Regarding the proper methods, the FUE Method is considered as the most efficient when doing hair transplant for Norwood 5. Follicular Units Extraction (FUE) is regarded as the most sophisticated micrograft procedure since the follicular units are removed one by one with their perifollicular structures without the need for cuts. It is minimally invasive and scars that remain when healed is invisible to the eye.
At the ASMED, our focus is offering the finest quality medical care and services available for our patients that met their needs. We understand that there are special needs and processes for each patient. We devote ourselves to taking care of our patients by offering them the most exclusive hair transplant medical services in Turkey.
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