Telltale Signs You Need an X-Ray

When you’re injured, the injury can be internal or external. Maybe you can see broken skin, bleeding, or broken bone.

But, if you suffer a closed-skin, internal injury, you need diagnostic exams like X-rays to find out the details of the damage. It’s important to seek urgent care evaluation and X-ray imaging as soon as possible after a potentially serious injury or illness.

At Carolina Urgent Care, our team of providers offers X-ray services to new and existing patients from around the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area. Could you benefit from an X-ray? Here’s what you need to know.

Understanding X-rays

X-rays are a diagnostic imaging technology that lets your medical providers learn more about your internal condition. X-rays are able to pass through your body. After your X-ray scan, your provider can examine high-resolution images of internal parts of your body like your bones, body tissues, and even your internal organs.

X-ray images can be projected on film or processed digitally by computers. X-ray imaging shows bones very clearly, as they appear white in X-ray scans. Denser areas of your body appear dark with X-ray imaging.

X-rays are a type of radiation that is safe for you in low doses. Since X-ray technicians are exposed to a high volume of X-rays, they may use protective equipment during your scan.

X-rays also work in tandem with other types of diagnostic imaging, including computer tomography (CT) scans.

How to know when you need an X-ray

So, when do you need the diagnostic benefits of X-ray imaging? There are a number of urgent care situations where an X-ray is very helpful.

If you suffer an injury or physical trauma, X-ray imaging can help your provider at Carolina Urgent Care to rapidly learn more about your condition and treatment needs.

X-rays can detect broken bones, dislocated joints, osteoporosis, and other similar musculoskeletal problems. If you think you could have a broken bone, you definitely need an X-ray.

But that’s not all that X-rays are good for. X-rays can also help to detect fluid in your lungs, enlargement in your heart, obstruction of your blood vessels, infections, and tumors.

Your provider at Carolina Urgent Care may also order an X-ray if you’ve been suffering from digestive issues, or even if your arthritis has been flaring up.

You might also need an X-ray if you’ve gotten a foreign object stuck somewhere in your body, or if you’ve swallowed something that’s not digestible.

Getting the treatment you need

At Carolina Urgent Care, we offer diagnostic exams like X-rays so that we can be sure to give our patients the right care and treatment. After you get X-rays taken at our clinic, your provider evaluates your imaging results, and may also conduct a physical exam, or ask you about symptoms.

Once we know more about what exactly is going on inside and outside of your body, we put together a treatment plan to restore you to health and deal with any symptoms you may have.

For expert X-ray imaging and urgent care treatment, contact Carolina Urgent Care online or over the phone now.