Anyone old enough to remember when the dentist or x-ray tech stayed in the room with you?

[NNN0LHI]

Think I was in my teens when I began noticing that everything had been redesigned so they took the x-ray remotely behind thick concrete walls and lead after they scurried out of the room.

Before that they stayed right in the room with you while taking x-rays.

All the mom and pop shoe stores used to have x-ray machines in them to stick your feet into to fit your shoes correctly. I used to play with the machine when the salesman wasn't looking. The shoe salesman was an untrained x-ray technician back then. All those disappeared by the mid to late 60's.

Anyone else remember that stuff?

Don

[Hannah Bell]

1. yes. i remember when dentists didn't have x-ray techs or assistants, actually.

my first dentist took his own x-rays. in an office that seemed to have been lost in the 1930s.

[Yo_Mama]

2. I do

I think you have to be of a certain age to have a clue.

For those my age or a bit older, it is amazing how much the world has changed. The air is cleaner, the soil is cleaner, the water is MUCH cleaner, and we are far more careful of dangers of any kind.

My doctor when I was young had extremely odd looking hands. It is hard to describe, but his hands looked as if they had been dipped in acid and some of the flesh had partly been destroyed. The skin was red and strange looking.

The reason was that he was a doctor in WWII, and he had done so many X-rays in field hospitals that he had very severe burns of the hands from the X-ray exposure.

[NNN0LHI]

3. The house I grew up in the roof shingles, siding and insulation were all made of asbestos

Bet they don't do that anymore either.

Don

[emcguffie]

4. Yes. And I remember when my dad --

-- who was a doctor at the VA, began wearing this little badge/monitor thing, that he wore for a certain period of time, and then it would be analyzed, and he would wear a new one, to see how much radiation he was being exposed to. I don't know if they did that before medical people began to leave the room for x-rays, but that makes sense to me.

At one point later in life his teeth kind of crumbled, and he blamed that on radiation exposure. His health wasn't exactly great.

[newfie11]

10. yep, those are checked once a month

also every x-ray room has one to check for scatter.

[safeinOhio]

5. Anyone else remember shoe stores

having Xray machines that you could see your foot in the shoe? 1950s.

[rfranklin]

7. Then they would tell your mother you needed "corrective" shoes...

and you would leave the shoe store wearing metal laden shoes that made you walk like Forest Gump. What a relief it was when you could switch to the Keds!

[iamtechus]

6. A couple of years ago I was sent to the local hospital's radiology dept for a series ...

... of xrays. There were three employees (techs?) on duty there. I noticed that they all had thinning eyebrows and receding hairlines. I wondered if they knew that they looked sort of creepy. It might have just been my overly-active imagination.

[newfie11]

11. LOL we're a motley bunch!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Last few dental X-rays, I had to ASK for the lead coverup.

Pissed me off no end. I made sure my throat was covered.
I also like the weight of those cover ups when I am being worked on.
Most dental rooms are chilly, to me. So I ask them to let me have it on the whole visit.
Find it sort of soothing.

[newfie11]

9. I am a registered x-ray tech or medical radiographer

Most of the people taking your dental x-rays are not registered x-ray tech.

The reason for leaving the room for any x-ray is the fact the tech does this many times a day and would be exposed to much more radiation than you.

Yes they should be offering you a lead apron but if those aprons are not checked to see if there are leaks than they may not be as helpful as you think.

One thing everyone should be given during a dental x-ray is a lead thyroid shield. Your thyroid is getting radiated during this and any protection to it is warranted.

[MindPilot]

12. Hell, I remember running outside to watch the atomic blast.

My dad was in the Air Force and I grew up around all that stuff...I remember dad letting me play with his dosimeter.

[shraby]

13. Don't forget the asbestos sheet that was behind the wood

stove..until Mom found out that tin foil with the shiny side out reflected it into the room better, then that was there.

[Divernan]

14. My high school classmate was a lifelong x-ray technician - has had 4 kinds of cancer

She's retired now - these cancers showed up in the last 10 years - she attributes the cancers to lifelong build up of radiation exposure.

Something to keep in mind for frequent fliers & people who have had cancer,who go through those full body x-ray machines. It has been documented that these scanners are not regularly tested for malfunctions, and that the minimally trained operators of said machines can "adjust" their settings to provide greater detail.

When my brothers were getting new shoes, I used to stand with my feet in those machines and watch as I wiggled my toes!

[tibbiit]

15. I stuck my feet in the box too!

Yes I remember.
tib