I've just recently started working with titanium and have discovered something interesting but painful. As the title states, I've got not one but TWO tiny slivers of titanium embedded in my hand that occasionally hit a nerve when I move my hand the wrong way. My question is how do I go about remedying this problem? I hate to go to a doctor about it unless I have to. If I had to describe the feeling, when it hits the nerve, it's like having a long needle hammered through the bone. Now imagine that initial pain of the needle hitting your nerve being repeated several times...

So what have you guys experienced like this and how does one go about remedying the situation?
-Siress

I don't have a particular suggestion about how to get the slivers out but I did check a website about titanium and tissue compatibility and found this;
"titanium, perhaps the most biocompatible material known".

So you can be reassured that titanium is not going to give you any horrible reactions so your problem should not progress beyond feeling like needles being hammered into your bones.

I'm really bad about slivers, I just start cutting away with fingernail clippers until the sliver is gone. I don't have any permanent damage anywhere, the flesh will grow back. Metal slivers are the worst for annoyance.

Do you drink and do you have someone you can trust with a knife and tweezers.

Razerblade and self surgery..

Yup and a bottle of Jack Daniels.

:cheers: Once upon a stupid time when I was first learning to use my bench top, I reached out and in all my glory, dusted freshly machine slivers of steel to the side so that I could inspect my cut. Does this sound familiar????
Low and behold, much of the "dust" did not fall to the ground but was embedded in my hand. Thus, tweezers, sour mash, nail clippers, and many other specialty tools were used over the next week or two to remove part of that "dust". A costly lesson learned! To make matters worse, just when I thought I had removed all the tiny little critters, I would touch something and the demon would return!!!! Short of haveing an MD dig them out, I could not find a good solution to the problem. Although, the sour mash helped and over time, some feastered and fell out and finally, the demon moved on. Like one of my South Carolina co-wokers once said to me: "It's gonna be auite"
Take Care!
billyjack
:)

An old remedy for pulling buried thorns and splinters is a poultice of freshly grated potato wrapped in wet cheesecloth. Apply as often as convenient for around 10 min per app. Usually takes a couple of days or so for the splinter to work up enough to dig out.

Works great for pulling infection too. Cleared up a persistent eye infection I once had after weeks of assorted antibiotics failed. The poultice took 3 days.


Tiger

I would've cut it out but I can't see them, not even an entry point. And the pain isn't focused really, I can barely tell which side of my hand it's on. Thanks for the tips guys, I guess I'll wait it out a couple of days and try the potatoe thing if it doesn't work its self out.

Most of the chips are huge...
http://tinypic.com/r77wac_th.jpg (http://i2.tinypic.com/r77wac.jpg)

Pull the slivers out and start wearing protection....

I'm really bad about slivers, I just start cutting away with fingernail clippers until the sliver is gone. I don't have any permanent damage anywhere, the flesh will grow back. Metal slivers are the worst for annoyance.

This has always worked for me, just make sure to wash the area with alcohol and hydrogen peroxide after digging. Usually the fingernail clippers have more infection causing organisms than the piece your trying to remove.

are you sure that it did not happen at work?

I find that if I drag something like a needle or a toothpick around longwise on the skin where I think a metal sliver is buried that I can find it. Those tiny ones are really annoying.

The old woodworkers trick is to coat the area with white or yellow glue. Let it dry and then peel the glue off. The splinter will come out with the glue. Might work with metal, but I haven't tried it. Maybe if it was just carbon steel you would see some rust. HA! I too drag a needle over the area and wait for the "hit" of pain when I find the metal. Then I start digging.

Another woodworkers trick to remove wood splinters is to rub a 3M ScotchBright pad over it.

I would've cut it out but I can't see them, not even an entry point. And the pain isn't focused really, I can barely tell which side of my hand it's on. Thanks for the tips guys, I guess I'll wait it out a couple of days and try the potatoe thing if it doesn't work its self out.

Most of the chips are huge...



I keep a pair of tweezers that have a magnifying lens built onto them. Some have a really poor quality lens. Look around at your neighborhood drug store.

I have ground the tweezers to a very fine point with small flat inside faces, which if need be, helps keep the area of the dig local to the sliver. Otherwise they are like trying to grab a needle with a pair of 2x4's looking through the lens. :idea:

Another danger that might not be self evident. NEVER blow chips off your hand with compresses air. I made that mistake 25 years ago. The smallest hole put air under the skin in the blink of an eye. My hand looked like a latex glove balloon! It only takes 1 tablespoon of air in the blood stream to kill ya if it makes it to your heart! :nono:

DC