Is It Always Necessary to Remove Body Jewelry For An MRI Or CAT Scan?
Studies have shown that removing piercing jewelry is generally not necessary for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), X-rays, and many other procedures, unless the piercing is directly in the area of examination or treatment.1 High-quality metal body jewelry is non-ferromagnetic (nonmagnetic), so it will not react to the MRI equipment. Beware, however, that cheap body jewelry may indeed be a dangerous problem when getting an MRI. If you wear metal jewelry, it will be visible on the test results, of course, but this is only a problem when the ornament obscures the area of concern. Computed tomography (CAT or CT) scan images, however, do become blurred if metal is present, so all metal jewelry in the region of the examination does need to be removed for this type of analysis. 1. Scott DeBoer et al., “Body Piercing/Tattooing and Trauma Diagnostic Imaging: Medical Myths vs. Realities,” Journal of Trauma Nursing 14, no. 1 (January–March 2007): 35–38. Reprinted with permission from The Piercing
