I had a permanent metal bar on my teeth and was told to remove my piercings but that the bar should be fine… what’s the difference? they’re both metal i thought?
In: Engineering
MRI metal risk is about two things:
1. The MRI magnet pulling on the metal
2. The electromagnetic fields from the scanner heating the metal
Additionally, the presence of metal can degrade the image, but this is more of an image quality than a safety thing.
A permanent retainer is small, likely stainless steel (which is relatively non-magnetic), and very firmly attached. Its presence may make the image slightly worse, but techs and radiologists know how to work around such things. Piercings may be made of a more magnetic material and have a greater potential to be pulled out. It’s not worth the safety risk to leave them in when when they can be easily removed.
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