Ring Avulsion: The Dark Side to Traditional Wedding Bands

When you hear about silicone rings, you usually hear a lot of benefits: they’re stylish. They’re less expensive than traditional wedding bands. They’re hypoallergenic (unless you’re allergic to silicone). They’re safe.

Wait, what was that? They’re “safe”? Isn’t that what’s meant by “hypoallergenic”?

Actually, no. “Hypoallergenic” just means that the materials used aren’t going to cause you to have an allergic reaction. “Safe” means that you’re free from the traditional wedding ring’s secret and oft-overlooked shame: ring avulsion.

What’s ring avulsion?

Ring avulsion is a common problem, but it doesn’t see a lot of time in the public spotlight. The one exception was back in 2015, when late-night television host Jimmy Fallon brought attention to it in the wake of a rug-related accident. Ring avulsion is basically when your wedding band gets caught on something and injures your finger in the process.

The wording here is deliberately downplayed just in case you’re squeamish. When a ring gets caught on your finger, it creates a unique type of injury – in the best case scenario, the flesh of the finger is torn clean off. In the worst case scenario, the whole finger is lost. The problem with this situation is that the nature of the injury makes it difficult and oftentimes impossible for surgeons to repair the damage, so you end up losing the finger for good.

Oh, and speaking of surgeons – have you noticed that surgeons rarely, if ever, wear wedding bands? That’s because they’ve seen this injury many times before.

So what can you do to prevent ring avulsion? Sure, the obvious answer is that you just take off your ring before going to work or playing sports. But what happens if you forget? All it takes is for you to forget one time and you too could be a victim of ring avulsion. You don’t even have to be working or playing sports to experience ring avulsion, either. In Jimmy Fallon’s case, he was simply walking through his house and slipped on a rug, and the ring caught on the counter while he was trying to catch himself.

The solution? Silicone rings. Here’s why:

-Silicone rings are flexible. The reason metal rings catch on things is obvious: they’re made of solid metal. Oftentimes they have diamonds on top, which make for great catch-points. Silicone rings don’t have this problem. If they catch on something while you’re playing sports, working, or falling, they bend. The worst-case scenario is that the rings REALLY catch on something, at which point they’ll break completely. Is it unfortunate to break a silicone wedding band? Yeah, but consider the alternative: losing your finger. You’d rather lose the silicone ring.

-They have a low profile. As was mentioned above, diamonds and other protrusions can catch on things. Silicone rings have a low profile, meaning they’re closer to your finger and are less likely to catch. This means that not only will they break if they do catch on something, they’re less likely to catch on something altogether.

-They’re ideal for sports, workouts, and professions. A lot of the time when you play sports, hit the weights, or work with machines, you have to remove your ring or risk removing your finger. And again, what happens if you forget? This creates just one more thing to remember, which may seem like a minor detail, unless you’re hardcore about optimizing your day-to-day life and factor decision fatigue into the equation.

Are you ready to eliminate the risk of ring avulsion? Check out your options for Men, Women, and Bundles.