Blog — silicone

Medical ID bracelets have been around for decades, but their importance and effectiveness in saving lives is often overlooked. These simple pieces of jewellery can provide crucial information to medical professionals in emergency situations, potentially saving a person's life. In this article, we will explore the benefits of medical ID bracelets and why they are a must-have for individuals with medical conditions.

What are medical ID bracelets?

Medical ID bracelets are bracelets that are worn by individuals with medical conditions or allergies. They typically have a metal plate or tag with important medical information engraved on it. This information can include the person's name, medical condition, allergies, and emergency contact information. Medical ID bracelets come in a variety of styles, including traditional metal bracelets, leather braided bands and cuffs, material bands, silicone bands, and even beaded bracelets.

Who should wear a medical ID bracelet?

People with chronic conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, allergies, heart conditions, and dementia should wear a medical ID bracelet. Children of school age also greatly benefit with the bracelet providing quick access to critical medical and contact information during sporting events, excursions and school trips.

How do they save lives?

How to choose a medical ID bracelet?

Here at Personalised Medical we have a range of stylish and affordable options available for a medical ID bracelet that will appease even the fussiest family member with a piece of jewellery that they will love to wear on a daily basis. Our team are also available to discuss any special requirements and to provide options from our catalogue for the best fit and tag space to include all required engraving information at optimal legibility.

View our range of medical alert bracelets here or get in contact with our helpful team today to find out more.

Beyond just being a practical necessity there are a range of things to consider when choosing the right piece of medical jewellery. Here we look at what you'll want to weigh up to find the right formula for you between style, comfort and lifestyle.

Silicone

A softer more flexible band like silicone is perfect for those with an active lifestyle and who like the more casual appearance. Layer a few bracelets at a time or choose a band from a range of colours and just change it up every day.  Hypoallergenic, waterproof and durable silicone medical bands are also the ideal choice for children. If you need to display more information or would like a snugger fit than a get with a standard bracelet you can opt for a fully customised stainless steel tag and an adjustable silicone band.

Stainless Steel

In a broad range of styles and colours you may find the right fit for your next medical ID to be a metal bracelet or necklace in stainless steel. From fine jewellery pieces to dog tags or chunky metal bracelets there's a design that will fit in with what you like to wear. All our metal products at Personalised Medical are stainless steel as standard meaning they're corrosion free, hard wearing and won't cause any skin irritation.

Fabric & Leather

From braided rope bands to woven straps and leather cuffs you'll find styles (or colours) that can be as discreet or as eclectic as you like. To keep them looking their best bear in mind that certain fabrics (like lighter colours that dirty easier) and leather bracelets (that are best kept out of water) wouldn't be recommended to keep on 24/7.

Clasps

Do you struggle with anything too fiddly? Try looking at magnetic clasps, bangles or necklaces that fit straight over your head. Like silicone but don't like the fit of a generic band? Check out our range of customisable silicone bracelets that have an adjustable band and securing strap.

Customised vs Generic

After finding the perfect style for you - your next most important consideration is whether a generic bracelet will be enough or if you'd like to personalise your own ID tag. If you're looking at customising a medical tag you may actually find that you'll start to fill it quite quickly, especially with certain jewellery pieces that have smaller tags. To help you decide on how best to construct your engraving text we've compiled a checklist below that helps break down what's important and what you can lose.

Custom Engraving Checklist

1. List Important Details
   Outline all important conditions, prescriptions or allergies in a simplified easy to read format taking into account the character limit (how many characters per line and how many lines) for that piece of jewellery.
2. Use Abbreviations
   Abbreviate longer and unnecessary terms where possible, for example 'in case of emergency' can be shortened to ICE or 'Diabetes Type 2' could be Diabetes T2. Here at Personalised Medical we can also engrave special characters and even icons so if you want to get a bit creative just let us know.
3. Utilise all the space
   Is it possible for the reverse of the tag to be engraved? If so, split the information between the two sides with the most important information displayed on the front.
4. Link to more Information
   Still have too much information to fit onto your jewellery? Consider adding text like 'Medical Card in Purse', 'See Phone' or if being a bit more techie doesn't scare you - how about a QR Code? We can engrave QR Codes that link to a website or even just opens up more detailed information once scanned using a dedicated QR Code reader or even just a camera on a smartphone. Using a scannable code is also a great option if you want your information to be more discreet.

Hopefully you'll find our guide helpful but if you're still struggling in any way just drop us a message here and one of our friendly team will be more than happy to offer some advice. We try, test, stock and engrave everything in-house at our small family business so you can feel assured you're in good hands.