A lot of women have questions about the use of silicone breast implants.

All breast implants have a shell on the outside and a filler on the inside. Saline implants use salt-water as a filler, but the shell of saline implants is SILICONE.

Let me back up and tell you a little about silicone. Silicone can be classified as an oil, gel, or elastomer. Just like there are different metals or different plastics, there are different silicones. Silicone elastomer is solid and is what is used for the shell of breast implants. If you are wondering what this is like, imagine a thicker ziploc bag–this is similar to the shell of a breast implant (although I do not know what ziploc bags are made of!).

In the first generation of breast implants, the filler was silicone oil. This was a liquid, and while not as runny as water, could flow more easily than the silicone gel. Currently the fillers used in silicone breast implants is silicone GEL. This is thicker, and if you cut a breast implant in two in my office, it does not run out. Imagine Jello on a dish. It doesn’t run off. And although being in someone’s body is a different, dynamic situation than being on a dish, the newer gels are hopefully less runny than the older implants. Sometimes people call these GUMMY BEAR implants.

Why do we care? Well, in 1992 the FDA took silicone breast implants off the market because they were concerned that ruptured implants were making women sick. When they did the science to check on it, they found that there was no evidence that ruptured silicone breast implants caused any systemic disease (although the implant may not seem right). So in the fall of 2006, silicone implants were put back on the market in the US. They were never off the market in South America and Europe (as far as I know). Breast augmentation remains the #1 plastic surgery procedure for women.

Of course, saline implants remain a good option as well! At least women have the choice now.

For more information on Silicone Breast Implants visit breastimplantsafety.