Apparently I am still (or once again) allergic to my white gold wedding ring. A few months ago, I developed classic nickel allergy symptoms (red, irritated skin only on my ring finger where the ring was). I had the ring replated with rhodium in January or so, and was fine until a few days ago, when the skin irritation reappeared. (I’ve never been tested for nickel allergy, but apparently I am the poster child for it – other allergies, sensitive skin, history of eczema, etc.)
So do I assume that the problem is a nickel allergy, and that the rhodium plating wore off again in only a few months? Should I see an allergist and confirm? The only reason to do that, other than the wedding ring debacle, would be to do my first allergy workup in 20+ years – I’ve developed a couple of drug allergies in the interim, plus apparently nickel is a common ingredient in various medical devices, but other than that, there’s no urgent reason for me to have allergy testing done. Plus I suspect it’s pretty expensive, and I have a $1k annual deductible for non-preventive care. Would it just be easier and possibly cheaper to get a ring that doesn’t contain nickel? Are there other factors I’m not thinking of?
My wedding band is titanium. It was relatively cheap (under $100, I believe) and it’s AMAZINGLY lightweight. Since titanium is used for medical implants, etc., I would assume that it’s probably one of the most biocompatible materials that you could make a ring out of.
There are lots of places online that sell them…that’s how I got mine.
The ring is not welded – I finally called my doc, and he concurs that it’s likely a nickel allergy, but thinks there’s no point to doing testing just for that purpose, and I should just get a different ring that doesn’t contain nickel. So I called up an old client who makes beautiful jewelry, who I wanted to make our rings in the first place except that he’d moved and I couldn’t find him (he turned up a few months later on Facebook), and he says he will stop by to catch up and talk shop.
(Another friend suggested the clear nail polish, but I’m sensitive to all kinds of cosmetics, etc. and with my luck I’d end up being allergic to that, too - plus I imagine I’d have to recoat all the time, and would inevitably forget and continually reirritate the same spot on my hand.)
“white gold” - gold alloyed with nickel and plated with Rhodium, with need to be re-rhodiumized periodically, forever. It pretty much sucks.
I have a nickel allergy so I went with titanium, from this guy. Came recommended to me, and was great work with. Mine is similar to “Midas” and my husband’s is “Aztec.” (click around for non-inlay, milled,and other styles)
Cost $100 at the time*. Cheap, durable, and doesn’t cause hives… like our love.
(looks like the price has gone up about $20 since I bought mine)
I’m sure gold is alloyed with all sorts of things, but the problem is that unless the metal composition is listed (which almost never happens), or the jewelry is specifically listed as nickel-free, I have no way of knowing. That, and the fact that I have munchkin fingers (the current ring is a size 4.75) mean that I am likely going to have to have something custom-made anyway. Luckily it didn’t cost any more to have my current set custom-made than it would have cost to buy something analogous off the shelf, and the guy I’m considering is an old friend, and I want him to reuse the stone from my engagement ring anyway, so I don’t think the cost should be too, too horrible. (Years ago, he did some beautiful hand-carving on a ring of my grandfather’s in trade for an old pair of eyeglasses, so I doubt he will charge much more than the cost of materials. Sadly, the materials cost much more than they did then…)
I wonder if I could just buy a plain platinum band from Amazon or something, and have him set the stone in it and do some carving? Ah well, we will talk later - I’d love to have him over for dinner anyway.
