Letter 35047

I have an allergic reaction to my 10 karat white gold wedding ring  

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Hi.
Will a rhodium plating help with this problem, or can you suggest another method.

I breakout with blisters around my ring finger but my finger was fine fro about 6 months and now a few hours of wear and it's blister city. help. Justin Ford professional - Los Angeles +++++ Alloy probably contains some nickel. Rhodium plating can help You(for some time,not forever). Good luck! Goran Budija - Zagreb, Croatia

The gold almost certainly contains nickel as an alloying and hardening agent. This can cause an allergic response in about 10-15% of the population. I suggest you see a dermatologist to resolve your problems. As far as rhodium plating is concerned, this will help you wear your ring, but it will not solve the fundamental fact you are allergic to nickel. The problem with rhodium plating is that it wears off and this has widely discussed on this site. You will need to get a good thick coating done by a reputable plater. For future reference, I would suggest you only get jewellery that is nickel free. It appears there may be difficulties in getting this in the USA, but in Europe, all jewellery must be incapable of releasing nickel (ie it is nickel free or has such barrier layers that is will not release nickel). Good luck and hopefully the problem will soon be resolved.

Trevor Crichton R&D practical scientist - UK

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