When my daughter was 10 1/2 she was diagnosed with AA by a Dermatology PA in January 2004.  This experience was not a good one for us. The PA did not prepare my daughter for the cortisone injections in her scalp.  And then verbally abused us when I urged her to quit with the injections because my child was screaming and crying. 

Since we live in NC we sought treatment & traveled to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to see Dr. Amy McMichael monthly for awhile.  This required her to miss a full day of school.  She did not have regrowth with any of the topical treatments.  At this point, WFBM suggested injections but after her initial experience she was unwilling to endure them again.

When she began to see some regrowth of hair where she had the initial injections by the PA, she decided she wanted to try injections again but neither of us wanted to spend the whole day traveling.  So my daughter agreed to begin seeing a local Dermatologist who is also a friend's father.  She didn't want to go to him in the very beginning because she felt it would be awkward and she wanted to keep this private. 

Dr. Carter Grine at Pinehurst Dermatology, heard our concerns and prescribed a topical numbing cream to help reduce the pain from the injections.  He also knows how to give injections that most of the time are not painful.  My daughter began injections and her hair began to regrow.   Since then until she began college, she had been on a 3-5 week schedule for injections dependent upon how active her AA was. 

Since going off to college it has been more of challenge for her to maintain a 3-4 week schedule with a dermatologist.  She still sees Dr. Grine when she is home for breaks.