Xray without apron.

[pinaybabe23]

Hi, i had a chest x-ray during the 8-10 weeks of my pregnancy. The thing is i was not provided with a lead apron. I'm quite worried about this as I am carrying my baby girl, 21 weeks now going to 22. I know the beam was not directed at my ovaries or pelvis region (i hope) but am worried about scatter or background. Does anybody know anything about this.

A lead apron wouldn't make any difference in the amount of radiation that your baby got from the chest x ray.
Try not to worry about it - you obviously needed the x ray at the time

Sorry I wrote that wrong I had two DENTAL XRAYS.

Did you know you were pregnant, did you let them know?
I think dental X-Ray is low dose and obviously no where near the pelvis- so no scatter from the radiation would reach there. Also to put It in perspective- a flight to New York gives the same dose as a chest X-ray- and sitting on a beach in north Cornwall also results in more dose. The dental X-ray would have less dose than a chest.
Don't worry
But you can let them know so they can reassure/provide guidance

The radiation used for a dental X-ray really is tiny. It's a very small beam with very little scatter. I had dental X-rays with no lead protection while accidentally still wearing my radiation badge (used to detect any exposure for radiation workers). When it was sent off there was no dose on it. Try to be reassured. I can understand why you are worried, if you contact your dentist and ask for details of their radiation protection supervised/service they should be able to put your fears at rest if you are still worried.

Ps- the beam would be very well collimated- so minimal scatter.

Did any of yous actually have a dental xray or a few when you were 6 to 8 weeks pregnant. I dont know if I should be okay, I will call my dentist tomorrow. Thank you.

Baby looks fine in the scan I am just hoping she is fine when she is born and grows older.

I'm a nurse and work in A&E where we do lots of mobile X-rays, I was exposed to very small amounts of radiation quite frequently all the way through my pregnancies due to the sometimes chaotic and badly laid out environment, no problems at all. You've nothing whatsoever to worry about from a couple of dental X-rays, honest!

Please check your message featherbag.

What I don't understand is why dentist say they would NEVer want to do frist trimester xrays and all these woman are saying it is fine and ther ebabies are okay. I would never have exposed my baby to any radiation or myself had I known xrays give off radiation. :l

We don't do them because people worry like you are! If you NEED one i.e you're in pain and we need to diagnose something then we would do it. It's because if anything wasn't 100% healthy, most people would automatically blame the dental x rays.

Usually radiographs don't NEED to be taken and we can wait until you've given birth.

Did you tell them you were pregnant?

I told the dentist I might be pregnant (my period wasn't even quite overdue, yet, but I'd been ttc and was actually pregnant), it didn't seem to bother him, he did a dental x-ray anyway (a weird thing that rotated around my head) and didn't give me an apron. My 9-year old ds1 is mad as a box of frogs, but I don't think it was the x-ray that caused it. Needless to say, I spent time worrying that that, or the antibiotics, had harmed him. Then worrying about whether all the stress of worrying had harmed him. Would have saved a whole lot of misery not to worry in the first place...

The dose is tiny, I'm not sure you can blame the madness on the radiation rabbit !! Yes, if you hadn't worried then you may have worried you had nothing to worry about...

I held my horse when he had 8 x-rays when I was 10 weeks pregnant but I did wear an apron.
The vet didn't ask, so I didn't tell.

Baby was born good and healthy. I didn't give the fact that I'd been present at x-rays a second thought....wasn't aware there were massive risks tbh!