In emergency situations where a ring needs to be removed immediately because it is too swollen, crushed or burned, hospitals use ring cutter tools like this, which are similar to can openers. Reddit user konvictkarl recently shared these photos to show the tool used at the hospital he works at.

There are also electric-powered versions of the tool above which make cutting rings faster and easier like this one from Esslinger. These tools are used for rings made from softer metals like gold and platinum. For rings made of hard substances like tungsten, a different type of tool is used that ‘cracks’ the ring instead, like this one from loupe-magnifier.

In situations where there is not severe finger trauma you can use string or thin strap to remove the ring with the technique seen in the embedded video below.

[via konvictkarl on reddit]