I had to remove my xG3 the other day due to a needing to have an MRI on my right shoulder. I just wanted to share my experiences.
So, the shoulder hurts a lot more than the removal process of the xG3, that’s for sure! I used a 4 gauge needle to remove the implant. I also had an extra hand to help with this process. The xG3 used to be in back of my left hand. I had my assistant basically tent the skin as previously done for the installation process. I used the 4 gauge needle to pierce the skin at just below the tip of the xG3 implant and pushed it further around the xG3…just slightly. Then when I removed the needle from my hand, I went back to check my hand and see if it was still there. I couldn’t find it in my hand at all…so I looked down the tip of the needle and there it was inside the 4 gauge needle. It was quite easy! Now my xG3 has been put to rest, in a Ziploc, …magnetized to the side of my desk.
I would really like to get another one to replace the one on my desk…just contemplating where to put it. Should I put it back where the 1st xG3 was? I was considering implanting it near the targus (did I spell that right?) of my right ear. Any thoughts?
I’m curious why it had to be removed? was it blocking what was being MRI’d?
I think MRI’s are very large magnets. So I think it would not like the xG3 when it’s turned on.
EDIT (from wikipedia):
MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio waves to generate images of the organs in the body.
Like any other implant I doubt much would happen other than some image blurring where the implant was but @amal might have more info on magnet implants since the site only mentions rfid tags and MRIs.
In the testing post
" It is our opinion that the xG3 should be removed prior to undergoing an MRI."
Gotcha, must have misremembered that being not mentioning it
Normal implant contain too little ferious metal to cause a problem with MRI’s the issue with the xG3 is it is a magnet and as such will interact with the MRI’s magnetic field unlike the other xseries implants.
Whether or not there is an actual risk probably will never be answered as I doubt any body or any operator would like to risk it.
I am sure there is someone who would try… 
This thread has a few accounts:
OK so, I dont have any magnet implants, I am not versed well enough to give you advice on this, but my attempt to answer this might just drag out an ACTUAL answer from somebody that does know.
Maybe you could take it to a piercer, to resterilize in an autoclave ( you will need to check, that the heat won’t damage the encapsulation, you might be able to send back to DT if you cant autoclave…
Are you going to need a followup scan in the near future?
Did you use it there? was it comfortable? did it work well? Then why not?
Tragus.
Speak to @Satur9 about that, there will be some important considerations for you
PSA
Don’t autoclave magnet implants, they lose their field when you heat them.
As far as tragus implants go, I have one and I wouldn’t recommend an xG3 as a tragus implant until we confirm it’s not too big. You can check out this thread if you want to cooperate with that effort
Yeah good, Glad you pointed that out.
I thought that was the case,But then again, I also thought they can be re-magnetised when they had cooled, which is also when you can change the poles, but that is only what I remember from science classes many years ago.
Would you suggest an alcohol soak instead?
I can’t suggest an alcohol soak to sterilize the magnet, alcohol does not sterilize things. The only thing that would do the trick is a 24 hour soak in 4% chlorhexidine solution, but I don’t expect you to get your hands on that very easily. I’d use the help bubble on the DT website to send them a message about it. Maybe they’ll send you another one.
Agreed
or
Buy a new one
I would also agree alcohol won’t sterilize, but will disinfect ie. a 70% Isopropyl-alcohol with 30% purified water mix.
To be clear, don’t mix water with 70% alcohol… it’s already mixed in. If you want to go the alcohol route, 48 hours with occasional agitation is suggested. Shake it around a bunch once in a while.
Apologies, That was indeed poorly worded and not very clear.
I should have said 70% isopropyl alcohol
(which contains 70% isopropyl alcohol and 30% purified water)
or simply just 70% isopropyl alcohol
My bad
I have no medical background. What exactly would you say the difference is between disinfect, and sterilize?
Level of remaining bacteri?
My definition, I take from my definition of the words
Sterilize: To make completely clean.
Disinfect: To make no longer infectious.
The CDC says
Sterilization describes a process that destroys or eliminates all forms of microbial life and is carried out in health-care facilities by physical or chemical methods. Steam under pressure, dry heat, EtO gas, hydrogen peroxide gas plasma, and liquid chemicals are the principal sterilizing agents used in health-care facilities. Sterilization is intended to convey an absolute meaning.
Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects. Disinfecting works by using chemicals to kill germs on surfaces or objects. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/introduction.html
Difference.com says
disinfection is the process of eliminating or reducing harmful microorganisms from inanimate objects and surfaces, sterilization is the process of killing all microorganisms.
https://www.diffen.com/difference/Disinfect_vs_Sterilize
How stuff works says
there’s a legal difference. In the United States, sanitizers are agents that destroy 99.999 percent of bacteria in 30 seconds
disinfectants are products that destroy all organisms in 10 minutes during the AOAC Use Dilution Test
Another interesting take …
In short, sterilization means you can do a growth medium test and nothing grows. The same isn’t possible for viruses but in general if bacteria are all dead then viruses are likely gonners too, but there are expensive tests for checking surfaces for viruses.
When you soak something in alcohol, there is a wide variety of both bacteria and viruses that will survive, even if only in small numbers. The primary difference is basically, is it 99.9% or 99.999% destroyed. Like server uptime, 99.9% is not nearly good enough.