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Are Today’s Breast Implants Safer Than They Were 15 Years Ago?
Question for Denver Plastic Surgeon Dr. John Squires about Breast Augmentation:
I have 15 year old silicone breast implants. Are today’s silicone implants any safer? I have been ill on and off ever since having the implants, but now I am sick most of the time.
I have had blood results back which say that I have high levels of silicone and high levels of nickel in my blood. I am not ready to live life without boobs, but I don’t want to be ill for the rest of my life. So as you can see, I need to weigh the odds. This brings me back to the question above, are the silicone breast implants today any safer than they were 15 years ago?
Answer from Dr. John Squires:
Silicone implants of any age have not been found to cause any disease. The illnesses that we were concerned were linked to the implants have been found to be just as common in women without implants as with silicone implants. The FDA has published all the pertinent data.
That being said, today’s implants are much less likely to leak than the old implants. The old implants had a very thin outer shell that could rupture easily. They were filled with liquid silicone and caused a big mess if they leaked.
The current implant design is approximately 8 years old. The shell is much tougher and the silicone inside is a cohesive gel, meaning that if the implant should rupture the gel sticks together and does not run everywhere.
In an MRI study, the leak rate of these new silicone implants at seven years was less than 1%.
