Accidental x ray in early pregnancy

In most cases, it's safe to get an X-ray while pregnant.  In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women get any diagnostic X-rays they need – like dental and chest X-rays – to maintain their health or treat illnesses or injuries that occur during pregnancy.

It's especially important to continue getting regular dental X-rays (and other dental care) as necessary to take care of your dental health, as periodontal disease has been linked to preterm labor and other pregnancy risks.

The main concern with getting an X-ray while pregnant is how much radiation your baby will be exposed to. Exposure to high doses of radiation can cause miscarriages, birth defects, and some cancers later in life. But X-rays emit very small amounts of radiation, so the risk of harm to your baby is extremely low.

Since the X-ray beam isn't pointed directly at your abdomen during an X-ray of your teeth, chest, or arms and legs, your baby is exposed to miniscule amounts of radiation – you'd need to get thousands of X-rays to reach a radiation level that could harm your baby. A diagnostic X-ray of your abdomen will expose your baby to slightly more radiation, but even then, you'd likely need to get hundreds of abdominal X-rays before your baby would be exposed to enough radiation to be harmful.

Still, no risk at all is better than a small risk. To be extra safe, tell your healthcare provider you're pregnant when you get an X-ray and they'll place a lead apron over your abdomen to minimize your baby's exposure to radiation.

You can also avoid being in the same room while someone else has an X-ray done. If, for example, you have an older child who needs to be X-rayed, you can ask someone else to hold or accompany them for the procedure. If that's not possible, wear a lead apron to protect yourself and your baby.

CT (computed tomography) scans use more radiation than X-rays and are generally avoided during pregnancy. But the radiation dose associated with getting one CT scan isn't enough to harm your baby, so if it's necessary, your healthcare provider may decide the benefits of getting a CT scan outweigh the potential risks, especially in the case of head trauma, severe abdominal pain, or pulmonary embolism.

Wondering whether it's safe to pass through the scanners at airport security? Yes, and most modern machines don't use X-ray-based technology. The metal detectors you walk through use magnetic fields, while the machines that scan you while you're stopped inside with your arms raised use radio waves.

Some airports used to use "backscatter" scanners, which use the same type of radiation as X-rays to scan passengers. Those machines aren't used in the United States or Europe anymore, though you may still come across them in other countries. They don't emit enough radiation to harm your baby.

You are exposed to some radiation when you fly in an airplane (it's cosmic radiation from the sun and other stars), but it's less radiation than when you get a chest X-ray – so your baby isn't at risk.

Even if you work regularly with X-ray technology, or are part of a flight crew, you're unlikely to be exposed to enough radiation to harm your baby. (The Federal Aviation Administration has guidelines for how much radiation exposure is safe for a pregnant flight crew member.) Talk to your employer about how to calculate your exposure, and share any concerns you have with your doctor or midwife.

Radiography, fluoroscopy, computed tomography (CT) and nuclear medicine imaging exams all use x-rays to produce images. X-rays are an example of ionizing radiation. This type of radiation can be harmful when delivered in high quantities, but such quantities are seldom reached in these types of medical imaging exams. Therefore, the potential risk is very small. Even so, it is important that your doctor knows you are pregnant when an x-ray, CT or nuclear imaging examination is being considered. Being aware of your pregnancy can help your doctor select the most appropriate imaging exam for your condition and keep your exposure to radiation as low as reasonably achievable to produce the necessary information.

If you had an x-ray or CT exam after conception, but before you discovered you were pregnant, you should not be overly concerned. In fact, imaging exams that do not include the pelvis will delivery very little radiation to the baby or fetus. The amount is less than the baby would receive from radiation that exists in our natural environment. Every pregnant woman is exposed to radiation in small quantities every day from their natural environment.

This page was reviewed on April, 15, 2022

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