Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray

This is a plain x-ray of the bony sockets that hold the eyes, taken from several angles. Its usual job is to answer a blunt question quickly — is the bone broken, or is there a piece of metal in there — rather than to show the eye itself.

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What it is

The orbit is the cone-shaped bony socket the eyeball sits in, built from several thin bones of the skull and face. This study is a set of plain radiographs of those sockets, taken with the head positioned at different angles so the thin walls and the floor can be seen without being hidden behind other bone. It is a bone study. The eye itself, the muscles that move it, and the optic nerve are soft tissue and are not well shown — for those, CT and MRI are the tests that do the work, which is why plain orbit films have narrowed to a small set of specific questions.

Why it is done

To look for a fracture of the bones around the eye after a blow to the face
To check for a metallic foreign body in or around the orbit, which is a standard safety question before someone is put into an MRI scanner
To assess the bony socket where a CT scan is not available or not being used

What to expect

There is no preparation. You sit or lie with your head against a plate, and the technologist positions your head carefully — chin up, chin tucked, or turned — for each view, then asks you to hold still and hold your breath for a moment. Several exposures are taken from different angles because a thin fracture visible on one projection can be invisible on another. The whole thing takes a few minutes and is painless, although holding a position can be uncomfortable after a facial injury. A radiologist reads the films afterward; if the answer is unclear or the injury looks significant, a CT scan of the orbits is often the next step, since it shows both the bone and the soft tissue.

Questions worth asking

How many views are being taken? Plain radiography codes are frequently tiered by number of views, and the count determines the price.
If this is done in an emergency department, is an ED facility level charge being added on top of the imaging?
If the x-ray is inconclusive and a CT follows the same day, will I be billed for both studies?
Is the radiologist's interpretation included in the quoted price, or is it a separate professional fee from a different group?

What Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray costs by state

Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Texas — 112 hospitals, median $328.35
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in California — 89 hospitals, median $473.20
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Florida — 67 hospitals, median $919.75
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Ohio — 67 hospitals, median $474.00
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Illinois — 51 hospitals, median $483.70
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Virginia — 39 hospitals, median $517.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Tennessee — 38 hospitals, median $78.60
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Washington — 32 hospitals, median $282.00
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Wisconsin — 32 hospitals, median $327.50
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Pennsylvania — 31 hospitals, median $272.00
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Michigan — 27 hospitals, median $444.00
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Indiana — 26 hospitals, median $247.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Georgia — 25 hospitals, median $349.05
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Arizona — 23 hospitals, median $134.23
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Iowa — 23 hospitals, median $316.43
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Kentucky — 22 hospitals, median $404.40
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in New York — 22 hospitals, median $125.84
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in New Jersey — 21 hospitals, median $117.81
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Missouri — 20 hospitals, median $288.60
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Minnesota — 19 hospitals, median $272.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Colorado — 17 hospitals, median $1,441.50
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Oklahoma — 17 hospitals, median $280.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in West Virginia — 17 hospitals, median $241.50
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in North Carolina — 15 hospitals, median $284.38
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Nebraska — 12 hospitals, median $299.04
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Arkansas — 11 hospitals, median $265.85
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Kansas — 11 hospitals, median $725.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Mississippi — 11 hospitals, median $90.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Oregon — 10 hospitals, median $274.50
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in South Carolina — 9 hospitals, median $313.50
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Maine — 7 hospitals, median $645.15
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in South Dakota — 7 hospitals, median $451.20
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Alaska — 5 hospitals, median $421.20
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Nevada — 4 hospitals, median $283.52
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in North Dakota — 4 hospitals, median $459.20
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Wyoming — 3 hospitals, median $366.08
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Hawaii — 2 hospitals, median $203.52
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Maryland — 2 hospitals, median $142.80
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Montana — 2 hospitals, median $181.60
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in New Mexico — 2 hospitals, median $353.22
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in Louisiana — 1 hospitals, median $200.72
Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost in New Hampshire — 1 hospitals, median $465.15

Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray prices at hospitals

See every published price for Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray: the full national range, the state and hospital breakdowns, and which hospitals charge the least.

Eye Socket (Orbit) X-ray cost — see all prices →

Sources

MedlinePlus: Orbit CT scan (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
MedlinePlus: Skull x-ray (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)
Wikipedia (opens in a new tab, leaves healthcosts.net)

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