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Introduction

Bones are made up of connective tissue, cells and minerals like calcium.  Bone density is the amount of mineral in the bone tissue. 

Bones that have more minerals are denser and stronger. Bones that have less minerals are less dense and can break more easily. 

A bone mineral density (BMD) scan is used to check if the bone density is normal.

Your child can eat and drink as usual before the scan.

Let your child’s treatment team know before the appointment if they have:

• a plaster cast
• another medical imaging study booked that uses contrast, like an MRI or CT scan.

These factors can affect the bone density measurements, so the scan may need to be rescheduled.

Your child must remove any thick or metallic objects, including jewellery and clothing with metal eyelets, clips or zippers.  

The whole process takes less than 30 minutes, with the longest measurement taking less than five minutes.

Generally, the steps are:

1. your child will lie down on the scanning bed of the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) machine
2. an arm on the machine moves slowly over your child, taking tiny measurements of different parts of their body.

You can leave once the measurements are checked by a nuclear medicine scientist or doctor.

The results will be sent to your child’s doctor within a couple of days. You will need to schedule a follow-up appointment with your child’s doctor to discuss the results.