# Titanium Pins and Airport Security?



## Malibu Sky (Feb 3, 2009)

Anyone have any titanium pins?  Do they set off airport security?

I had surgery last week to re-attach the tendon in my elbow...they used a titanium pin to secure it back in place.  

My son was joking with me....he wasn't going to fly with me any more because I would now be a security risk!!  Will a titanium pin set off the metal detectors?


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## AwayWeGo (Feb 3, 2009)

*Titanium Hip Joints.*

I guess they're made of titanium -- I don't know. 

In any case, a good old friend I've known since high school days had both worn-out hips surgically replaced a couple of years ago with high-tech artificial replacement joints.  He says they work fine.  The only thing he can't do that he was able to do before his natural hips went bad is bowling.   (Go figure.) 

However that may be, his surgeon issued 2 cards to him (provided by the manufacturer of the high-tech replacement hip joints) that are intended to explain to the airport security screeners that my friend has metallic implants that are apt to trigger an alert as my friend goes through the metal detectors.  

He's been through this a dozen times or more by now, so he takes the cards out & holds'm in front of him as he approaches the walk-through metal detectors.  

That does no good, he says.  Invariably the security people pull him out of line & wave their little screechy wands all over him looking for whatever he's packing.  Eventually they figure it out & after maximum folderol my friend is good to go. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## Makai Guy (Feb 3, 2009)

Malibu Sky said:


> Anyone have any titanium pins?  Do they set off airport security?
> 
> I had surgery last week to re-attach the tendon in my elbow...they used a titanium pin to secure it back in place.
> 
> My son was joking with me....he wasn't going to fly with me any more because I would now be a security risk!!  Will a titanium pin set off the metal detectors?



I have two titanium rods in my lower back, and six titanium screws the size of my little fingers.  Have never set off an airport alarm.  Titanium is not ferro-magnetic.


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## pittle (Feb 3, 2009)

I too, have titanium screws & what I call a "molly-bolt" in my arm from elbow surgery.  I never have set off alarms and I have been traveling quite a lot since getting these in February 2000.


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## hefleycatz (Feb 3, 2009)

My husband has a titanium plate and screws in his ankle and has never set off any alarms.  We were worried that he would but it has never been an issue.


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## Malibu Sky (Feb 3, 2009)

Thanks for the responses...I guess I am good to fly...and will not embarrass my son


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## Keitht (Feb 4, 2009)

AwayWeGo said:


> However that may be, his surgeon issued 2 cards to him (provided by the manufacturer of the high-tech replacement hip joints) that are intended to explain to the airport security screeners that my friend has metallic implants that are apt to trigger an alert as my friend goes through the metal detectors.
> 
> He's been through this a dozen times or more by now, so he takes the cards out & holds'm in front of him as he approaches the walk-through metal detectors.
> 
> ...



The obvious problem is that anybody could create such a card so it's really not worth the paper it's printed on.  It may be an inconvenience to be taken to the side for the wand dance, but surely better than security accepting the card as proof and some nutter with a gun or worse getting through.


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## dwsupt (Feb 4, 2009)

*one more voice....*

I had 2 steel plates and 13 screws in my right leg from a hunting accident in 1996. As long as I have removed 100% of the metal on my person such as keys, coins, belt buckle, etc. I am fine. However if I leave anything else made of metal (other than my leg ) the detector will go off. I'd say 1 pin your elbow will be fine. I used to use the cards prior to 9-11. They are a waste of time now.


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## Phydeaux (Jul 9, 2013)

Makai Guy said:


> I have two titanium rods in my lower back, and six titanium screws the size of my little fingers.  Have never set off an airport alarm.  *Titanium is not ferro-magnetic*.



Perhaps what you intended to write is _*titanium is*_* non-ferrous. 
*
It will not cause you any problem with airport metal detectors. Done.


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## AwayWeGo (Jul 9, 2013)

*Surgery Certificate Does No Good Whatever At Airport Security.*




kmykimi said:


> The metal detector can detector all kinds of metals, including the titanium pins. I advice you to show your surgery certificate to the Security staff in the airport.


I own a card-size certificate attesting to the 2010 surgical installation of an outstanding DePuy Rotating Platform replacement joint in my left knee. 

At airport security, that certificate means nothing.  Zippity-doodah. 

Nobody at the security station is interested in it, nobody looks at it, nobody cares 1 white about it.  

I have to go through the line anyway, even knowing that my artificial knee joint will set off the metal detector.  When the detector beeps, I get shunted aside for head to to groping. 

For a while some airport security lines used full-body image scanners that were quicker & easier than getting groped.  I don't know whether those are still in use anywhere.  No doubt I'll find out soon.  

So it goes. 

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​


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## natasha5687 (Jul 9, 2013)

My mother has had 2 back surgeries that included various metal objects (screw, plates, pins) and the insertion of some sort of stimulator thing.  She has to carry those cards someone mentioned when flying.  They do wave the little wand thing but it really doesnt hold us up.


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## isisdave (Jul 10, 2013)

I have two very small titanium screws securing a repaired knee tendon. They have never set off a magnetic alarm, but the "millimeter wave" scanner in San Diego found them last month.


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