No paper on exam table

A year ago I went to a new doctor's office for a specific problem. I wasn't there for a physical and didn't have to get undressed. I noticed that there wasn't paper on the exam table on which I sat. Instead it was just the vinyl or leather padded top. There was a sign on the wall that said that this medical office does not use paper for its exam tables because it wastes paper and the table top is thoroughly cleaned after each appointment. I had never heard of this before and didn't ask the doctor about it as it didn't matter to me but wonder if anyone has ever seen this in a doctor's office and whether this is a new thing that some medical offices are doing. This was a large medical practice with several doctors, a lab and pharmacy so this wasn't some little single doctor office.

It makes sense. The paper just yields an artificial sense of sanitation. For standard office use, I'd rather see lysol or clorox wipes used. I'm sure they use something like chux pads if something messy is expected.

I've only ever seen an exam table without paper once. It occured at an appointment with a sports medicine specialist. Instead, the table was leather padded and actually appeared to be lower than a regular exam table. However, as far as I have seen, all the rooms at that practice have the typical paper covering except for the select few.

Hopefully tables or beds without paper will not become the trend. Its bad enough doctors are using gowns more, even for children and males, and more reluctant to do the thorough exams done to us for fear of accusations. Quite frankly, if it had not been for having to undress down to tighty whities and my sister down to panties at our pediatrician growing up, and being in all possible positions naked or almost naked on the doctor paper, having temps taken really, etc, me and many others would not have a medical fetish. Our first sexual experiences would not of been playing doctor with the paper down the bed, the latex gloves, the Vaseline, the glass rectal thermometers, the suppositories, the enemas, you name it. Even the feel of the paper makes a difference, its more erotic if it's thin and crinkly with a slick finish than if it's thicker like newspaper, napkins or regular paper. My fetish for it started when my mom who was in her mid 20s telling me while I was lying naked waiting for the doctor when I was 10 saying " don't this paper feel good on your naked bottom sweetie" and "try not to wiggle your penis on it when the doctor has you turn over to take your temperature and sticks his finger up your rectum but I know it will feel good" perhaps my young mom being bisexual herself knew I would be bisexual or gay too. Had it not been for those erotic feelings my prior exams cemented in my imagination I would not of exaggerated constipation as a 15 year old just so my mom would make an appointment with my doctor mid year between physicals and just so I would get to get totally naked and lay down on my tummy waiting for the doctor and the enema that followed. Every detail makes a difference in starting fetishes and for me lack of paper and being given gowns for modesty would of made me have no medical fetish

I have connected the paperless exam table with the completely dressed physical exam. Just as seats in the waiting room aren't cleaned between patients waiting on them, the dressed patients proceed to sit on the exam table.

My plastic surgeon and neurologist never have paper on the table.

I feel like after sitting/lying on the paperless table for a few minutes, your bare skin (back, legs, butt) would start to stick to the vinyl kinda like your legs stick to vinyl seats in a car on a hot day. No table paper would make sense for a doctor that you wouldn't have to get undressed for like a neurologist or plastic surgeon.

you wouldn't have to get undressed for like a neurologist or plastic surgeon.

Now that depends on the reason for the visit, doesn't it. I've been completely naked under a gown for a full neurological evaluation. For a plastic surgeon, how about genital or buttocks procedures?

I have never heard of that but as long as the table is thoroughly disinfected, I wouldn't mind. Saving trees is always a great idea to me.

Where I saw this was a general family medicine clinics so guessing that they do physicals there and other exams that would require undressing. I wasn't there for anything that required me to undress but it was the first time that I had ever seen a paperless exam table and a sign saying what the clinic did not use paper on its exam tables. I also didn't know the undressing routine for this clinic and whether they require patients to be nude under a gown or not but my thought at the time was that the lack of paper was unsanitary even with the notice that the table was cleaned after every appointment. I guess that applied to my appointment too even though I wasn't undressed. People come in to clinics with dirty clothes.

All of my doctors have had paper on the exam table. I think it probably serves a couple of different purposes. I can't imagine going to the doctor's office for an exam and not having the paper on the exam table. The feeling of it against my bare skin adds to the visit.

The doctor's office my wife and I go to still uses exam table paper, and I hope they always will! The table paper crinkling as my wife or I move around the table laying back, sitting up, her sliding down to place her feet in the stirrups, is all a part of the medfet experience for me. To not have that sound would take away some of the magic, so to speak.

On a practical note, I would think that without the table paper, that vinyl or leather clad exam table would be even colder to sit or lay on versus having the paper as a layer to make it not as cold. And for a woman, I would think it would make it more difficult to slide down the table for the pelvic exam, since her skin might stick to the vinyl or leather without that nice, smooth paper to slide on.

Seems like it would take its toll on the exam table with all the more than regular disinfecting and cleaning. Hard to like the idea of no crinkling paper unless maybe you have a thing for leather or vinyl against your bare skin. 😉

I like the paper feel as well, unless it's Uber hot inside the office, or really hot outside. Once at a doctor's office visit the paper started breaking down as I sat and sweated in the exam room. I had on shorts that day, it was the middle of summer and the paper tore and stuck to my legs. I felt like I had toilet paper stuck to me!

Think about it - that paper is pretty narrow, tears easily, and sweat and urine (mostly in the case of small children) and other body fluids go right through it. It's just window dressing and if someone did think "we have the paper so I don't need to clean quite so carefully" it could get bad. I vote for losing it. Besides, it seems so wasteful when you get on it and mess it up with wrinkles.

BTW if it is leather instead of vinyl run away. There's no way to adequately disinfect leather, and in this age of MRSA ...

If they actually clean it between visits, then there really is no problem with having no paper. I agree with what moliere said. If sweat or urine gets on the paper, it could go straight through. I assume they would still clean the table if fluids get directly on it but im not sure.

I wish more offices would do that. Every time I need to have blood drawn, I sweat so badly the paper is soaked and it clings to your body. Kind of makes you just want to have none and just use a towel.

I've never had no paper on exam table.

I'll start off by saying that I'm a fan of the paper if for no other reason than the sound and feel. My orthopedic doctor doesn't use paper on his table. It's the tall, non-adjustable kind with a vinyl top. I would imagine he rarely, if ever, has people sitting/ lying on it without underwear. I've never been on it without pants, even for a hip and knee evaluation. I have had my shirt off lying on it, but that's it. I don't even know for sure that they are cleaned between every patient. Kind of the same principle as a dentist's chair or the seats in the waiting room. Clothed people sit and lie on them all the time and you don't see people cleaning them.

I can't imagine not using paper at a family practice or ob/gyn or anyplace physicals might possibly be given. Think of receiving a rectal or gynecological exam and then immediately afterwards sitting on the end of a table that doesn't have paper on. Think of the big glob of lube that you would leave on the vinyl top. Then the nurse comes in after you leave, grabs a single Clorox wipe from the cabinet, and wipes down the entire table top surface. You know she's not going to spend any more effort than that cleaning. That big glob of lube that just came off your ass just got smeared all over that table top. Now imagine the next patient coming in, bare assed, and hopping on that table, and that happening multiple times a day. Ewww.

The paper is by no means perfect either though. As others have said, I'm sure certain things can leak through, or the paper tear. I've seen plenty of pictures and videos of legitimate exams where part of the patient is on the exam table not covered by the paper. I've had plenty exams myself where part of me, a leg, an arm, or something, is hanging off the side of the table touching the vinyl. I've noticed a few times that when I sit on the end of a table and rest my hands on the outside of my legs, they are usually off the paper. I'm sure bigger patients butt cheeks and back fat spill over the paper onto the vinyl all the time. There's just something about the sound of that paper though...

My real doctor will put the paper down, it’s on a big roll on the wall if your pants are coming off . I’ve had a few exams involving digit rectal exam for a prostate infection I had . Even though your trousers and pants are only partially down and you are lying on your side , he still puts paper down .

I'd much rather be sitting on a paperless table that has been cleaned properly between patients than a table with a bit of torn paper where they skimped on the cleaning.