I miss the cold stethoscopes of yesteryear

I remember when I was a kid and the doctor getting his or her stethoscope out to listen to my Heart.....it was always cold and knowing that in advance was part of the thrill . When I was younger the only time I ever took off my shirt ( except for changing clothes ) was pretty much at the doctors. So sitting there hearing the doctor tell me to take off my shirt or "Remove your shirt so I can listen to your Heart" was enough to make my Heart muscle pound hard enough that you probably could hear it out in the waiting room! Oh, and if the cold stethoscope touched my left nipple......THUMP THUMP..THUMP THUMP!

I too can remember the anticipation of the touch of a cold stethoscope, many modern instruments have non-chill rings for the patients comfort.

Cold is best, can you still purchase "cold" stethoscopes or are they all non chill?

I think you may be able to find an older stethoscope on ebay. I think the non chill rings on modern instruments can possibly be removed or alternatively the head can of course be chilled prior to application, although excessive cooling could possibly damage a sensitive diaphragm. Some time ago I used a wine bottle cooler sleeve to keep the steth cold between applications.

You can't really remove the 'comfort' ring without altering the quality of sound you get, at least, not in my experience. I also find that nurses' models, though giving lower quality sound, also tend to be coldest to the touch.

The Welch Allyn Harvey DLX stethoscope is the only one I know of that has an all-metal bell chest piece. There's no anti-chill rim on it. It does give a nice cold feeling on the chest.

Warm touch of a woman's hands. Cold Phonendoscopes head. Hot drop of sperm

Cold stethoscopes are far better. The icy chill on my bare skin is enough to warm me up downstairs. 😉

I miss them as well!!!

I agree with you on this point the cold chest piece on your skin is a major part of a stethoscope exam and too many doctors are now using modern stethoscopes with anti-chill rim.

I swear to god, my doctor keeps her stethoscope heads in the freezer, when she puts it against my skin and says to take a deep breath, I really have no choice in the matter!

I had a doctor with a really cold one the other day, he even warned me it will be cold.

I tried to catch a glimpse of the model/ make but didn't want to stare and he put it back in the draw too fast.

I must say, it was super exciting

Miss them a lot to me

I fear that the future will only stethoscopes and warm with the plastic membrane. In any case, the new electronic stethoscopes can be very funny and offset the feeling of cold. These stethoscopes allow you to receive any type of noise and the amplification fill the ear of the doctor ... If you try them, you can figure out how much you will be naked during auscultation!

Even though I am exclusively a doc these days, I think the feel of a cold stethoscope when I was a kid was a major factor in developing my medfet.

I remember that as a kid too, always did like that. Dr. checked my heart and lungs on Wed. she is quite pretty, with a firm touch. She is very thorough and checks me over about once a month as I have chronic health problems.

Absolutely love cold stethoscopes and cold, sterile exam rooms.

A female instructor that taught a class I was in said a Doctor who was her PCP many years ago had an office in an old building that was extremely cold and had the sterile alcohol smells. She said this Doc was old school My instructor said She(the Doc) would have undress to the waist and when she examined you with her stethoscope it felt like ice on your chest

They are non-chill today.

A lot sprague-rappaport steths have no non-chill rings on them, except for the bell side. Usually that comes with a black plastic screw-on bell.

Around what year did they not become cold? I was born in the 80s.

I think it was the mid to late 1980s - I have a Littmann Cardiology II in my collection that was manufactured in 1990 and that has a non-chill rim on the diaphragm. Looking at some of the Littmann patents, the idea of the floating diaphragm was being investigated in the early 1980s, with the patent application in 1983, granted in 1984 - it would have then been a while before the first stethoscopes with non-chill rims entered the retail market.

Personally though, the date for me was October 1, 1996 - I was involved in a car accident and was taken to hospital, knowing I would have to be examined and I was not looking forward to it one bit. The doctor there listened to my chest and for the first time ever I don't remember it being cold - previous to that I dreaded that cold touch of the stethoscope, and this time I thought it wasn't too bad at all.

The Harvey DLX line from Welch-Allyn doesn't have any non-chill parts on it. They are great steths, but have become increasingly pricey over the years.

Recently, warm stethoscopes have become increasingly common. But they are very sticky. In my opinion, every doctor should have both a warm and cold stethoscope :-)

The Harvey DLX line from Welch-Allyn doesn't have any non-chill parts on it.

Oh yes, they are very nice.The original H-P Rappaport-Spragues are nice too, but the Harvey DLX beats them when it comes to that cold feeling.

I really miss the cold stethoscopes of yester years. I own a cheap steth just so I can have the sensation of a cold steth on my chest

The pediatrician I used to go to when I was younger had some noname stethoscope. It did have a plastic non chill rim, but i still remember it as being cold. Maybe because it used to be stored on some kind of metal tray. Anyways, I do enjoy cold stethoscopes, but only if they are really cold, like Rappaport scopes. But there is something about a warm Littmann stethoscope for me as well. It should be really nice and warm so that it feels comfortable on the skin. IDK, but i like both, cold and warm stethoscopes. But i would rather want to use cold stethoscopes on my patients as a doctor.