When scheduling your colonoscopy, your physician will assign you a set of preparation instructions unique to your needs. Following these steps is vital to the success of your colonoscopy. Without a good prep—your bowel empty and clean—your gastroenterologist will be unable to see your colon clearly, which could lead to missing a polyp. And that, after all, is the biggest reason to have a screening colonoscopy.

Your physician will assign your prep based on your health history and other factors. Therefore, patients must be careful to follow their own assigned instructions and not those used by friends or family, even if used for the same procedure.

Another practical risk of improper prepping

For the medical reasons outlined above, failure to use the prep your doctor assigns you can also result in cancellation of your procedure upon arrival — a situation nobody wants. That’s because due to the high demand for screening procedures, the lead time for rescheduling is significant, often months.

So again, it’s important to double-check that you’re following the specific prep procedure assigned by your doctor.

Here you can see the difference between a good colonoscopy prep and a bad one. If your physician cannot see your colon tissue clearly, they can’t successfully perform colonoscopy.