I am scheduled for surgery tomorrow (yay!) and just had pre-op yesterday. Nobody mentioned my nailpolish -- all 8 people who saw me. But I'm reading in the paperwork, don't wear nailpolish.

I have shellac on my nails and it's a pain to remove. Did anyone get by without removing nailpolish??

Good Morning,

That should be the least of your worries. I was sleeved in May and did not have to remove mine. Congratulations and welcome to the losers bench

Good luck!!

Good Morning' date='

That should be the least of your worries. I was sleeved in May and did not have to remove mine. Congratulations and welcome to the losers bench [/quote']

Hahaha, thanks.

Now I can worry about other stuff!!

It is a good idea to try to remove the polish from at least one of the nails. They watch the color of the nail to monitor blood flow. Usually if they really, really need that nail uncolored though, they will remove it for you before surgery.

_{I also noticed this in the paperwork they gave us at the initial seminar. I looked around and saw that every lady in the room had on sandals and painted toenails, so I made a comment, and the nurse quickly said toenails don't apply, just fingernails.}

_{Now having said that, nobody looked at my fingers while I was in recovery. I don't know about surgery but that seems pretty dumb to me because the anesthesiologist has every monitor in the hospital attached to you during surgery. In the recovery room, I had to call the nurses several times because of various alarms going off on machines. To the person who said this was the least of your worries, I AGREE! All the data they need they get from my blood pressure cuff and all the other machines. I doubt any hospital staff looks at anything other than machines and charts.}

They ask you to remove the nail polish because they put a pulse ox on your finger. It keeps track of the oxygen levels. Nail polish can make it unable to read those levels. My husband is a nurse and has had issues with nail polish on nails and other times the polish doesn't interfere. If it does become a problem they will just take it off.

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If it's a dark color, then it could be a problem. The pulse ox can usually pick up on lighter shades of polish. If they can't get a reading through your polish, they'll use your earlobe.

I'd call and ask. The shellac nail polish is hard to remove and they probably don't have what it takes to remove them at the hospital. Better be safe than sorry. You don't want them postponing your surgery for something insignificant. I know in my past surgeries they want no nail polish or artificial nails.

Shallac is easily removed by soaking your finger tips in acetone, which you can get at Walgreens, fred Meyers or target (most stores). It find of just melts of. If you want to expidite the process soak your fingera, remove your hand and use a cuticle pusher and scrape the goo off and place back in the acetone.

I out my fingers in a glass bowl of pure acetone with a towel over it.

Best of luck.

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I had clear gel nails and didn't need to remove them

Shallac is easily removed by soaking your finger tips in acetone, which you can get at Walgreens, fred Meyers or target (most stores). It find of just melts of. If you want to expidite the process soak your fingera, remove your hand and use a cuticle pusher and scrape the goo off and place back in the acetone.

I out my fingers in a glass bowl of pure acetone with a towel over it.

Best of luck.

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Yes, but how long will it take to remove? and do you think that the hospital is equipped with pure acetone for removing the shellac nail polish?

I almost want to say they only need one finger nail with light nail polish or no nail polish. But then again every hospital is different.

Hi everyone, as it turns out, they DID want it off but they did't have pure acetone. I took the polish off my toes as a gesture of good will, but they were able to use the finger sensor without problems.

Thank goodness because my nails break and peel, shellac is the best stuff!

Glad everything worked out!!! so you had surgery? Recovering? How do you feel?

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Thanks for posting cuz I was going to make mine all pretty before I go in. Never mind! LOL

Yes, but how long will it take to remove? and do you think that the hospital is equipped with pure acetone for removing the shellac nail polish?

I almost want to say they only need one finger nail with light nail polish or no nail polish. But then again every hospital is different.

When I remove mine at home I can do all nails in 15-20minutes. Its never been a problem for me.