Health Maintenance Guidelines: 50 to 74 

[MUSIC PLAYING]
ANDREW HUDNUT, M.D.: I love the engagement
that this test can create, and I love the motivation and in
many ways the empowerment.
That puts it back in your hands.
DEXA scan is a test that allows us
to measure the strength of the bones,
and it puts people very quickly into one of three buckets.
You either have normal strength; you
have weakness of the bones, osteopenia;
or you have significant weakness of the bones, osteoporosis.
Those are very strongly predictive of future fractures
in the spine, future fractures in the hips.
JEANNETTE TAN: Osteoporosis is not just bone density.
It's also bone quality.
However, quality is tougher to measure.
Density is what we use as far as an actual specific number.
So a DEXA scan isn't particularly important
because it produces that number.
We know exactly what your bone density is.
We can say we want to use pharmacological agents
to then improve that score.
ANDREW HUDNUT, M.D.: We are excellent at getting
the screening DEXA scans.
Most people expect somewhere in their 60s as a woman to get
a bone density study.
A menopausal woman who has a fracture
should get a DEXA scan within six months.
That is an opportunity to identify
an undiagnosed, untreated condition.
KIMBERLY GILLAM-BAYNE: A typical DEXA scan
consists of scanning the lower back and hips.
And sometimes we will use a forearm as well.
This is not like an MRI or a CT.
You're not going to be enclosed in a tube.
You can breathe and relax.
And it's fairly quick.
Typically, a scan from start to finish,
from registration to end, will probably
be about 30 minutes because we do need the patient to undress.
We need to get their information and then complete the scan.
JEANNETTE TAN: I always like to share with my patients
that DEXA scans are very safe.
Essentially, there are about 10% of the radiation you would get
from a standard chest x-ray.
So the risks are very, very low.
KIMBERLY GILLAM-BAYNE: No pain, no injections, no loud noises--
very simple, very quick.
JEANNETTE TAN: We will be done with it before you even know.
You'll just lay on the table, relax for a few minutes,
and then be on the rest of your day.
ANDREW HUDNUT, M.D.: It is a rare experience for an insurance
company to put up any barriers to testing for osteopenia
and osteoporosis after you've had a fracture when
you are 60 and older.
JEANNETTE TAN: Ideally, it should
be a preventative measure.
Unfortunately, though, because osteoporosis is often
a silent disease, we determine patients have osteoporosis,
oftentimes after a fracture.
The reason why it's important to get a DEXA scan,
particularly after a fracture, is now we
have a measuring tool to gauge what your bone health actually
is.
We can then create treatment plans
to help improve that density.
ANDREW HUDNUT, M.D.: It's actually
a very different treatment pattern after a fracture
if you have normal bones versus osteopenia versus osteoporosis.
So the benefit of this test is it really
allows people to know which path they're on,
and that becomes very motivational.
JEANNETTE TAN: It would be nice to get ahead
of your bone health.
So if you can talk to your primary care provider ahead
of time to minimize your risk factors early on, things
that you can modify, that would be great.
We're all here to take care of the patient.