Saline vs. Silicone Breast Revision Irvine

People often wonder what difference is there between saline and silicone breast implants. We do like silicone implants more than saline.  Silicone absolutely feels more natural.  In patients who have very little natural breast tissue a saline implant has more chance of getting folds or ripples that can be felt and actually show through the skin.  The only benefit to saline is they are less expensive.

I recently had a patient with saline implants that had ripples showing through the skin.  The implants were also sitting too  low adding to the unnatural look.  Our plan is to replace the implants with silicone and reposition them so they have a more natural feel and appearance.

Today I was asked by a patient if silicone breast implants are really safe.  This, of course, came from restrictions of silicone implants by the FDA  starting in 1990 that lasted for 15 years.  There was concern at that time that silicone might cause autoimmune diseases (like rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, and lupus) or increase breast cancer.  At the time I felt fairly comfortable that silicone implants were fine but we had to wait for the FDA to do it’s research.  Silicone implants became the most studied medical device in the history of the FDA.  The best reports came from large studies comparing women without implants and women who had silicone implants for many years.  They found that there was no difference in the two groups.  The only area where there was some difference is  some studies showed breast cancer was actually less in the patients with the implants!!!  The only explanation for this is that women who get implants usually have less breast tissue. 

I do use both silicone and saline implants (saline implants are filled with medical salt water) but I do prefer the silicone.  They have a more natural feel and the chance of breakage (usually from trauma like a car accident) is less(1% a year for saline vs. 0.3% for silicone.  Unfortunately the silicone implants are a little more expensive.

Dr. Kemsley