How to Eliminate Your Varicose Veins in 6 Easy Steps
Follow These 6 Easy Steps for Great Vein Results
Start with the Best Varicose Vein Center in Pittsburgh
#1 Seek the best trained and most qualified vein specialist in Pittsburgh – not the closest.
What are the ideal qualifications of a vein doctor?
That is a bona fide board certified vascular surgeon who is also a vein specialist.
That physician should have been trained in a place where that doctor’s mentors are the top doctors in the world.
Your vein specialist should be someone who has been fully vetted by a reputable world renown medical institution.
Vascular surgeons have all the tools required to treat every aspect and variation of your varicose veins.
There’s an old saying – if all that you have is a hammer, then everything is a nail.
That means that your vein doctor should not be limited in their choice of tools. Treating varicose veins requires the entire gamut of treatment options to obtain the optimum results.
That includes minimally invasive microsurgery for the largest varicose veins, endovenous thermal and nonthermal techniques and sclerotherapy or injections for smaller veins.
Ambulatory phlebectomy is indispensable for the biggest varicose veins.
Phlebectomy is the removal of these largest veins under local anesthesia through micro incisions made with a needle. It leaves no scar. There is absolutely no pain afterwards!
It is the quickest, least painful option for large veins, and provides superior cosmetic results without ugly scarring.
It has the lowest rate of recurrence since the bad veins are totally removed. Your circulation is improved since your blood is rerouted to your normal veins nearby and deep in your legs.
Nonsurgical specialists like radiologists, family doctors, and cardiologists are often not familiar with this technique or lack the expertise to perform this essential vein procedure.
#2 Make sure that the vascular surgeon is an expert with ultrasound to obtain the best results.
Ultrasound or Doppler is indispensable for the diagnosis and also to guide the actual treatment procedures for your venous problem.
You vein specialist should be certified in both performing and also interpreting vascular ultrasound. Look for credentials like registered vascular technologist (RVT) and registered physician in vascular interpretation (RPVI).
Without ultrasound, the vascular surgeon is basically blind. They cannot determine the root of the problem or where the veins originate.
Before ultrasound was used to treat varicose veins, the surgeon blindly stripped the most likely underlying causes of the varicose veins seen on the surface of the skin.
If they didn’t guess right, the wrong veins were stripped or alternatively normal veins were stripped instead of the bad ones.
#3 Choose a vein doctor by their reputation in Pittsburgh and your local community.
An outstanding reputation is built over a lifetime of experience and trust.
Yelp, Google, internet searches, friends and family are helpful in this regard.
The biggest mistake that I see that patients made – who come for a varicose vein second opinion after a failed procedure – is that they chose the most convenient or the closest place.
They didn’t research the vein facility or more importantly the actual vein specialist who will diagnose and treat them first.
Choosing by convenience instead of qualifications is by far the # 1 most common mistake that people who have varicose veins make.
#4 Make sure the vein center office facility is accredited and its focus is on the medical side – not aesthetics.
Don’t choose a med spa or a business oriented franchise for your varicose vein care.
A vein doctor’s private office with their name on the sign out front is important.
Accreditation of a vein center is essential. It basically certifies that they have been inspected using national standards.
Another common mistake is choosing a generic vein center, vein institute or hospital – instead of choosing the vein specialist.
I am skeptical of hired guns or part-time vein doctors. Is their focus on keeping patient’s veins healthy? Or are they motivated on maximizing personal gain and the bottom line?
Do these kinds of doctors keep their eye on why they went to medical school in the first place?
Or are they just performing a service for hire?
#5 Make sure the vein center office facility does not charge an extra facility fee.
Read this shocking story of what it costs in facility fees when you are treated in the UPMC medical center in Magee Women’s Hospital.
Would you want your veins treated there with these exorbitant extra costs?
The cost of treating varicose vein has become increasingly important.
Insurance companies are restricting vein care. Deductibles are increasing while your premiums are increasing even more rapidly.
Insurance company’s reimbursements to doctors are also decreasing every year.
In addition, you are expected to pay a larger percentage of the cost of these procedures that are “covered by insurance”.
Cost is high on the list of searches that people look for on Google and Bing.
Facility fees are an added expense that can more than double your cost.
Choose a Pittsburgh facility that doesn’t charge an additional excessive facility fee.
#6 Choose a vein center in Pittsburgh that doesn’t advertise.
We have become inundated with ads.
You know, like all of the ab machines that don’t work. We have lost touch with the truth and what is real and what is fake.
In Texas, they say that it’s the smallest dog that barks the loudest.
The truth is that most vein doctors who advertise are generally more interested in your money than your health.
There is usually a reason they need to advertise and that’s usually not in your best interest.
I question the capabilities and skills of a vein center or vein institute which needs to advertise and can’t get enough patients via referrals.
Be skeptical of the vein centers you see on advertising in community magazines, TV, on the radio, in newspapers, and on billboards.
That is a red flag that something is wrong. Free consults are also red flags.
Ads for bogus vein institutes and centers are everywhere. In this regard, these vein offices are like car dealers.
They always claim they have the most advanced, the newest, the latest, the most experienced and of course the most convenient location.
By choosing a business model, (like vein franchises or med spas do), responsible and ethical medicine may be sacrificed in the pursuit of profits.
Read why doctors and hospitals shouldn’t advertise.
The hyperbole and downright lies that are disseminated in the name of marketing is appalling.
Advertising for vein care is just fluff.
Outrageous and untrue claims are made.
Advertising is also harmful because it creates unrealistic expectations among patients.
It is often misleading. They promise more than they can realistically deliver.
How can one determine if ads are even close to being truthful instead of blank promises?
You can’t.
The sad thing is that most people believe them and respond to advertising.
It’s my opinion that the decline of medicine began when the profit motive entered the picture in the 1980s and the 1990s.
First the profit motive came, then came the ads. That lead to the fall from grace.
I believe that the entire medical profession has sullied itself with ads and betrayed its patients.
Hospitals are the worst offenders because of their motivation to make as big a profit as possible. Their CEOs make millions every year while their hospital employees barely get by.
Don’t get sucked into places that promote themselves with vein advertisements.
