Many people are under the impression that breast implant patients should have
a proverbial "tire change" every ten years. This is not
true but some explaining is necessary to completely understand this topic.
The FDA recently mandated that patients in the silicone gel study be told
that the likelihood of needing an implant changed sometime in their life is
greater than 50 percent. I do not believe that this will turn out to be
true either. Here is why...
The FDA data looked at patients before 1988. From about 1978 until 1986
implant manufacturers used second generation implant shells which were made with
a process called room temperature vulcanization. These suffered
from a very high rate of failure. After 1986 most manufacturers changed to high-temperature vulcanization. I have found the failure rate of
third generation implants to be very low in my practice. No one, however,
knows what the forty-year failure rate of these third generation implants is
going to be! 1986 was only 14 years ago.
Given my present experience with third generation implants I believe the
failure rate will not prove to be high, but only time will tell. The good
news is that changing a saline implant that has deflated can usually be done
under local anesthesia and the major implant companies pay for both the new
implant and the procedure.
