X-rays?

ergonomics

I once heard a rumour that if you get an x-ray or body scan you need to take out piercings because they cause a glar on the film. Is there any truth in this?

I'm getting a mole removed as a safety precaution in a couple of weeks which is why I'm asking. Does anyone know if a scan will be involved with this? I can't see why there would because like I said it's only a precautionary removal. At the same time I don't want to turn up to the hospital to be told I need to remove all my piercings because they want to do a scan for tumours or something!

Blub2k4

You will have to remove piercings, the reason is that the metal will show up on the xray and they dont want anything in there that is unnecessary.
It has nothing to do with glares, but to do with removing unneccessary artefacts that will cloud the doctors view or assessment of the area.
If you have ever had an xray they do put metal in the shot normally, say you are getting a pic done of your left then your right leg, they put a metal tag with an L shaped hole in it in the picture of the left leg and then same with an R for the right leg so when the pics are done you get a bit showing up with L&R on the respective pics so that they know which way round they go and also which leg it is.

I had to remove my nipple piercing for a chest xray.

porn_star

yeah, like Blub said your suppose to take them out...

my brother had an x-ray after he was in a car crash though and they never made him take them out, it had nothing to do with the urgency of getting an x-ray though..I think they just forgot..it was the coolest x-ray I've seen though........
anyways, yeah..your suppose to take them out...

and unfortunatly you have to take them out if your gonna become a radiographer aswell :mad:

Hellrazer

They asked me to take out my nape a few weeks ago for an xray and since I couldnt get it out they took it anyway.

I think that a lot of the time its more for the radiographer to feel important.

Ive had numerous dental xrays where I flatly refused to take out piercings and they had no effect whatsoever on the xrays.

porn_star

actually yeah, I've had dental x-rays before aswell and I wouldn't take out some of mine cos they were still a bit new
and it didn't make a difference...

It does effect some x-rays though, it can hide any tiny problems, cos the rays obviously can't penetrate throught the metal..

they will take if they have to though with them in. But I don't really think it's the radiographer to feel important...it's more safety and precaution or something...

I dunno..my sisters a radiographer, she was explaining it to me one day.

!_Brian_!

I had to go in for cat scans last week and was told to take off a chain I was wearing and my glasses and to take out all piercings from the neck up. Even had to let my hair down for it cause the hair tie had a little metal bit on it. Dunno about x rays but the metal must interfere with MRI's and CT scans.

fun bus

as for mri's, you have to remove all metal. mri stands for MAGNETIC resonance imaging. the machine would literally tug at the piercing because of the strong magnetic currents it uses, where-as a ct/cat scan (computer aided tomography) doesnt (but they would still prefer u to remove the piercing in case it occludes the image). xrays are similar-the metal will not cause any adverse effects, but it may interfere with the finished picture. as for radiographers not wearing piercings, i think thats more of an image thing. hospitals seem to think its not professional to have a visible tattoo or piercing (i know this is certainly true when it comes to nurses!), but it may have something to do with infection control also as hospital staff are not meant to wear any jewellry at all except wedding bands.

Geordie_Girl

me wrote:

to do with removing unneccessary artefacts that will cloud the doctors view or assessment of the area.

I think this is the key, if they see that the piercing is clearly not in the way they still like to follow proper procedure and remove the piercings whereby they can make a judgement call that it wont interfere in reality and proceed, as with Hellrazers teeth.

Amalgam

fun bus wrote:

as for mri's, you have to remove all metal. mri stands for MAGNETIC resonance imaging. the machine would literally tug at the piercing because of the strong magnetic currents it uses, where-as a ct/cat scan (computer aided tomography) doesnt (but they would still prefer u to remove the piercing in case it occludes the image). xrays are similar-the metal will not cause any adverse effects, but it may interfere with the finished picture. as for radiographers not wearing piercings, i think thats more of an image thing. hospitals seem to think its not professional to have a visible tattoo or piercing (i know this is certainly true when it comes to nurses!), but it may have something to do with infection control also as hospital staff are not meant to wear any jewellry at all except wedding bands.

Just to follow on from your post, check these pictures out. Metallic objects that flew into an MRI and got stuck.

I think it takes a day or two to reset and 'power up' again.

(SFW) http://www.simplyphysics.com/flying_objects.html

fun bus

imagine what would happen with a piercing if the mri can do that to a chair! anyone doing manual/trade work (especially with metal) has to have an eye exam prior to the test to ensure there is no small shards or splinters of metal inside the eye. i heard (but not sure how true this is) that one case study involved a metal worker being blinded when the machine moved a splinter inside his eye. scary machines!

Blub2k4

Mareth wrote:

I think this is the key, if they see that the piercing is clearly not in the way they still like to follow proper procedure and remove the piercings whereby they can make a judgement call that it wont interfere in reality and proceed, as with Hellrazers teeth.

Ooops sorry actually this was me, the girlfriends account was logged in and I didn't notice, sorry.