Are Ultrasound Safe

Words: 802
Pages: 4
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Bethany Hyde
Mrs.Wilkie and Mr.Wilkie
British Lit/Comp
12 November 2015
Are ultrasounds safe?
I. Introduction to ultrasound
Today’s technology has allowed us to explore many new aspects of life one of these new achievements is ultrasound. Ultrasound or Sonography is used for many different health reasons but one of the main uses we use ultrasound for is prenatal care. Ultrasound technicians use the ultrasound which sends low frequency waves through the skin and into the womb and the waves bounce back showing an image of the unborn baby; also the ultrasound can detect the heartbeat of the baby and also the sex of the baby before it’s even born. Some people may question whether or not ultrasound is safe, so are ultrasounds safe and what effects …show more content…
However research has shown that ultrasound are not harmful to fetal development or to people. A website called babycentre explains kind of what happens when an ultrasound scan happens in this quote “During an ultrasound scan, the equipment generates a small amount of heat which is absorbed by the part of the body that's being scanned. Antenatal scans produce less than one degree C. This means they're fine for you and your baby. It's only if the temperature of the scanned body tissue rises by four degrees C that harm may be caused.” All this quote is saying if the setting on the scanner gets turned up to a higher power then it becomes harmful, but other than that ultrasound scans are for the most part completely safe. The only somewhat high risk part is in order to pick a baby if we were doing a regular 2D ultrasound they would put the scanner on the stomach and it would heat up slightly to send rays to make the fluid around the baby light up then showing us the outline of the …show more content…
These effects include lower birth weights, delay in speech development, changes in brain chemistry, and also brain defects. This doctor wrote about why ultrasounds can sometimes me harmful this quote kind of explains it “Remember, non-natal ultrasound is often used to super-heat and soften damaged muscle tissue after surgery or injuries.” What this quote is saying is that when an ultrasound scan is given anytime heat is slightly given to give the best picture of the baby, so when this happens it can cause damage to the tissue which causes the birth defects. Many pregnancies have had ultrasounds then had babies with no problems but in some rare causes ultrasound can cause problems. How can we make ultrasounds better? There are many things we need to do to help improve ultrasounds but there are very few studies going to help. One scientist named Vladislav Yakovlev has been studying and doing experiments to help improve ultrasound. “The metamaterial developed by Yakovlev and his colleagues is not subject to those limitations, primarily because it converts ultrasound waves into optical signals rather than electrical ones.” This quote is saying that if they can change the signal of the waves then it would lower the risk of birth defects and hopefully make ultrasound scans less harmful. Also with switching the signals this could make improve the quality of the picture making it easier to see the picture of the
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