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Myths About Breast Augmentation and Breast Implants

1. Breast implants rupture all the time.
Breast implants do not rupture as frequently as some people want you to believe. They are very strong, you can punch them and pull them and stomp on them and throw them against the wall and they will not pop.

They actually test breast implants by squeezing them (quite roughly) between two metal plates at 200 compressions per minute two million times. But if you think about it, you breathe thousands of times a day. But the small amount of compression from breathing is nothing compared to the severe squeezing done in the tests.

According to the Institute of Medicine, the reported deflation rate is 7% at 7 years for saline implants. The institute estimated that 1 to 3% of modern saline-filled breast implants would have ruptured by the first year and that this rate would increase over time. The modern models show a 5 to 10% rupture rate after 10 years, according to one study. For silicone implants, the institute estimated that less than 10% of modern silicone gel-filled breast implants would have ruptured by 5 years and that rupture rate would continue to increase over time.

So, the truth is that breast implants do not last forever, but they do not rupture all the time, either.

2. As soon as an implant is placed in the body it is changed forever.
An implant's chemical make-up does not change after it enters the body. The elastomer is still the same when it goes in you as it was in the box. It was designed to withstand your body's fluids. There is some research showing that an breast implant will degrade a bit after many years in your body. Breast implants do not last forever, so expect to have a replacement surgery in the course of your life.

3. You can get a fungus infection from a saline-filled breast implant.
Any known fungus, virus, or other infectious agent cannot permeate the elastomer shell of an intact implant. They cannot get in and they cannot get out. The only thing that can permeate the shell freely is water. Even the salt molecules in saline cannot escape.

A fungus or a fungal spore is just too big to permeate the shell. Now, at one time, it was possible that the breast implant could be contaminated while it was being filled. It was then sealed and whatever contamination was there could not get in or out. At one time, implants were filled with a fluid called Dextran that was found to be able to sustain a fungal infection. Today, implants are filled directly from a sterile bag of saline through a closed system. The entire system is designed to be sterile.

You can read more at Fungal Infections and Implants.

4. You can't get unders with a transumbilical breast augmentation (TUBA).
Yes, you can. You can get a TUBA and go under the muscle.

Some doctors say it can’t be done because they don’t do it. However, some plastic surgeons know how to place the implant under through an umbilical incision, but prefer not to because they believe the combination of the placement and incision causes an unnatural movement of the breast or muscle problems, postoperatively.

5. TUBA can stress the implant and weaken it.
No. The theory was that rolling up the breast implant and placing it through the small umbilical incision could damage the implant. But these implants are strong. In any event, surgeons are performing endoscopic techniques with the periareolar and transaxillary incisions. They are rolling up the implants and inserting them through an incision about an inch long. It is basically the same technique as TUBA, only a different incision placement.

6. The silicone elastomer shell can make you sick.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allowed silicone-shell breast implants back on the market after many years of research into their safety. No tests have shown that silicone can make you sick. Surgeons wouldn't put these implants in their wives, mothers, and sisters if they did. Many kinds of silicone implants are used surgically with no problems, including replacement joints, chin implants, and cheek implants.

Please read Silicone and Your Body for more information.

7. Capsular contracture happens quite frequently.
Actually, the incidence of capsular contracture is low. Some women's bodies do not react well to implants and will develop capsular contracture, a form of scar tissue that encases and hardens around the implant. Capsular contracture occurs in about 5% of patients. Individuals who develop capsular contracture usually have signs of it within the first 3 to 6 months after surgery. When contracture occurs months or years after surgery, it was usually triggered by an infection or trauma of some sort.

You can read more at our page on Risks and Complications of Breast Implants .

8. Breast Implants will make your breasts sag earlier.
It isn't breast implants or not having breast implants that make your breasts sag, it's gravity, weight, and the loss of elasticity in your skin as you age. A breast of the same size and weight will sag just as fast as its enhanced counterpart.

Still, because you now have larger breasts, you will sag at the same rate as someone who has the same size natural breasts, assuming your skin elasticity is the same. You cannot go braless all of the time after breast implants. You need to wear a good, supportive, high-quality bra.

9. Breast Implants make it difficult to detect breast cancer with mammography.
To some extent, this is true, but this is why they take more films at more angles when you have your annual mammogram. They will also manipulate your breast differently to make sure that they have gotten images from all of it.

It is important to get a baseline mammogram if you are over 35 or if you have a history of breast cancer in your family before you have your breast augmentation surgery.

10. Silicone breast Implants cause breast cancer.
Silicone-filled breast implants do not increase a woman’s risk of breast or other types of cancers, according to researchers at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, TN even when cancer cells were purposely seeded into the breast tissue of laboratory rats with implants, no additional rates of cancer were seen.

In humans, the Institute of Medicine (a nongovernmental group) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI, part of the U.S. government-funded National Institutes of Health) found that breast cancer was no more common in women with implants than in women without them. However, the NCI did find that there was a small increase in risk of cancers of the lung and larynx and of the brain in women who had breast implants when compared to women who had cosmetic surgery that did not involve silicone implants. But the significance of that finding is not clear since other factors (such as smoking) were not examined.

When implants filled with silicone gel were reapproved for sale in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required that implant makers conduct extensive post-approval studies. The companies are collecting information from annual physician follow-ups of breast implant patients to monitor their health and help document any long-term risks. They are collecting information on everything from suicide rates to how well women comply with follow-up examinations, and rates of cancer are one part of this study.

11. The recovery involves the same amount of pain if you need to replace an implant due to rupture.
That is not true. The initial surgery to create a breast implant pocket and the initial expansion of the skin and its tissues is what causes the discomfort in a breast augmentation. All that needs to be done for a replacement implant is to open the pocket and exchange the implant, so the discomfort levels are almost always less. The area around the sutures may cause you some discomfort, but that is minimal.

12. You will be denied or will be dropped from your health insurance if you have breast implants.
Health insurance will not cover the costs of breast augmentation surgery done for purely cosmetic reasons. It will usually pay for reconstruction of the breasts after a mastectomy (reconstructive breast augmentation or enhancement). However, you should call your insurance company to determine how having breast implants will affect your health insurance. According to the Food and Drug Administration’s Breast Implant Consumer Handbook, “For some women, companies may increase premiums, drop coverage, or deny future coverage following breast implant surgery or following complications from the breast implants or surgery. Policies on coverage may also change from year to year.”

But even if your insurer does not change your premiums or drop you, it may not cover the costs of any complications due to your cosmetic breast augmentation. You should contact your insurance company and find out what the company’s policy is on coverage of complications stemming from cosmetic surgery.

You should also determine what coverage you will have for any and all follow-up tests that you may need after breast augmentation. The FDA and implant makers say that MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is needed every few years after silicone-filled implants are inserted. Your insurer may not cover this imaging.