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Checking in and I have metal in my body

Bamafan3162
Explorer C

If I have had 2 total

knee replacements and a metal plate in my neck do I need to check in a special way at the security?

1 REPLY 1

Re: Checking in and I have metal in my body

CareforNOLA
Frequent Flyer A

@ Bamafan3162, it is important to tell TSA about the metal implants before you walk through a metal detector.  They want the people with metal implants to use the full-body (millimeter-wave) scanners - the ones that look like round phone booths.

 

The security notation on your boarding pass (randomly assigned TSA-Pre check or regular/no notation) typically determines which type of scanner, but you can usually see the difference.  And every now and then, I have seen them shake things up, like with a canine security check but that is not frequent.

 

If you walk through a metal detector with an implant, they have to do a pat-down search and cannot just turn you around to the body scanner line because the attendant has to address every alarm, and cannot lose someone in the crowd by sending them elsewhere.

 

Good luck - I know you can handle it.  The carry-on bag(s) - what stays in and what comes out - can be more challenging than the metal/full body scan.  You might want to read up on it here: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening