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| Dr. Joel Aronowitz |
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “Closing up this incision for silicone, and let's talk about the difference between silicone and saline breast implants. So with both kinds of breast implants, the shell of the implant, the outside, is made out of silicone. So that's the same. It's just what's inside. With saline, it's salt water. And with silicone, it's a more gelatinous form of silicone. And there are different consistencies of silicone that are used.
The gummy bear, for example, is a more cohesive or a more sticky form of silicone, but it's the same chemical. Basically, silicone is a polymer, and there's more cross-linking of the polymer strand with a gummy bear implant. There's, if you're concerned about the silicone coming out, if it's ruptured coming out of the implant.
That concern is addressed by a gummy bear implant, but otherwise there's really no difference except that the gummy bear will be a little bit less soft. So basically, a saline implant is going to give you a firmer feel because it's a water balloon, basically, and so you can feel that water balloon. Whereas a silicone implant, if it's not a high-profile implant will give you a softer breast. And the difference can be marked if you're a woman who has very little breast tissue, and most of what you're feeling when you touch that breast is going to be implant, then silicone is certainly much more natural-feeling. In terms of the appearance, both can give a good appearance, although in general silicone gives a more natural appearance than saline.
Simply because the saline, again, is going to look more like a ball because it is more spherical-shaped, typically. Is there, is one safer than another? Nothing is 100% safe, but the safety profile, if you will, the risks associated with saline implant versus a silicone implant.
Basically identical. The differences have to do with what happens if the implant ruptures. If the saline implant ruptures, you lose the volume because the water leaks out, and the salt water, of course, doesn't hurt you. But if the silicone implant ruptures and all the silicone leaks out, the silicone just stays within that scar tissue pocket, and there's no loss of volume, typically. The silicone doesn't somehow migrate all over the body.
But there are microscopic amounts of silicone that then are available to be transported by the immune cells to the nearby lymph nodes. So the, whether or not that harms, that causes some harm systemically is a controversial point, I would say. There's no solid evidence, no consensus that that presents a medical problem.
But it remains a controversy. So silicone versus saline, to recap, silicone, softer, more natural in appearance and in feel, a little heavier implant than saline for the same size, and a little more expensive than a saline implant just for the cost of the implant itself.
Not necessarily the surgery. A saline implant, just a saltwater bag that's put in, it can be, it will be a little bit lighter for the same volume versus a silicone implant, a little bit less expensive, more unnatural in appearance just because it's going to be not as soft as a woman's natural breast and give more of a round contour to the breast.
So saline versus silicone, there you have it.”
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