I am Christel from Diabetes Strong and today I'm going to show you where on your body you can
place a Dexcom CGM so a little bit of warning here a lot of the placements I'm going to be
showing you today are considered off label that means that if you choose to place your sensor in
a place that's not approved in your region it's considered off-label and the manufacturer, Dexcom
is not necessarily liable should the product malfunction. I'll be telling you which placements
are considered off-label and which are not so let's talk a little bit more about where
the Dexcom CGM sensor is approved to be worn. So in the U.S the Dexcom G6 is approved by the FDA
to be worn on the abdomen and that's for the ages 2 and up as well as the upper buttocks and that's
for the ages 2 to 17. That's the FDA label for that what that means is that Dexcom has done the
research and they submitted the clinical data to FDA and had that approved that is a safe place to
wear the sensor. Interestingly enough here in the U.S there are also other sensors available
Medtronic has one Abbott has a Libre sensor and those are both approved for wear on the arm
so but in the U.S it's currently only approved for abdomen and upper buttocks if the patient is
younger anyway in Europe Dexcom received CE mark in June of 2020 for wear on the arm as well as the
abdomen so that means if you are in Europe or a country that uses a c marking as a guidance
the product is actually approved for being worn on both the stomach as well as on the arm
okay so I'm in the U.S this is where I live I like to wear my sensor on my arm but because I'm here
and it's not a CE country it is technically considered off-label
Dexcom can be placed in most reasonable places below the neckline where it feels comfortable
generally, it's not recommended however that you place directly over bone or very muscular areas
try and find somewhere that's a little, what I'd call meatier, or has a little bit more fatty
tissue so let me show you a few places where the Dexcom can be worn I've been wearing the
Dexcom sensors for quite a few years now coming up to five years and I have worn them quite a few places
so the first one is FDA approved on the abdomen on the stomach see a photo of that here another
placement is my thighs so that goes here that's not my favorite placement just
because that's a little bit of a more muscular area for me I've also worn it on my lower back
see it here I don't mind that placement except if there's go where if there are period times
where I drive a lot I find it's a little uncomfortable sitting up against a car
seat when the sensor is placed there. And then this is my favorite placement see it here or here
this is my upper arm this is where I prefer to wear my Dexcom it doesn't get in the way I get the
absolute best readings there. I place it below the delt okay so the shoulder muscle so it's kind of
yeah as I said a little more meaty area so I don't feel any pain when I insert that
but those are my, the only real places that I've ever tried it I've seen people place
it pretty much anywhere below the neckline a lot of that looks very uncomfortable to me
I will not be trying that out for you however my friend Connie allowed me to use a few photos
of some of the placements that she has tried and that she's liked so let's bring out Connie so this
is the first one and you can see here Connie is wearing it on her arm on her forearm again that is
a more muscular area you don't have a lot of fatty tissue there so I have seen some people who
sort of commented that they can feel the sensor, or at least they have the sense that they can feel
the sensor. Next one is on the calf another place I won't be trying but I've seen a lot of people
really love this placement again you might feel some discomfort given it's kind of directly into
a muscle but people say it doesn't get in the way which I can see because it's there and
they get really good readings. My recommendation when it comes to the placement of the Dexcom CGM
is know what you're comfortable with. Are you comfortable with off label or are you not
if you're not comfortable with off-label that's totally fine if you're in the U.S
just stay with abdominal and if in Europe you can do abdominal or the arm and you'll be you know
still using it as directed. If you are comfortable going off label what I would suggest is to start out
with again a meatier place I wouldn't necessarily go directly to injecting the sensor into a
muscle so start with a meatier place and try different things out and spread it out don't
necessarily place it exactly where you usually do your injections okay we don't want to inject
and have our sensors in the same place. So using the product off label also means at least for me
that I can move it around and keep it away from my injection sites. I hope this video is helpful
that you got some ideas for new placements for a sensor thank you so much for watching