Silicone Breast Implants Guide Silicone Implants Center
 

Silicone Implants Soon to be Approved in the US!

Example of silicone breast implants
Example of how silicone implants work.  
Note that the implant has a shape to it, unique to silicone implants (and unlike saline implants, which don't hold a particular shape and thus appear fake).

What Are Silicone Implants?  

Silicone implants are medical devices that characteristically consist of a silicone elastomer shell filled with silicone gel or saline. They are proposed or recommended for women, who intend to seek reconstruction or augmentation. 

Silicone implants can be helpful for augmentation in suitable women for a variety of reasons. Silicone implants happen to be softer more natural in feeling,  than saline. More importantly, silicone implants move more naturally on the chest wall than saline can. Newer implants contain textured surface to help decrease the hazard of hardening or capsular contracture. They also have a somewhat more cohesive gel inside to check any unforeseen spread of gel or to decrease leakage.

 

What is Silicone?

Silicon is abundantly found on the earth, is the basic component of ordinary beach sand and is the generic name for a family of silicon-carbon-based polymers or chain of molecules. If the molecules are connected jointly in comparatively short chains, the silicone produced turns into liquid. If the complexity or length of the molecule chain is enlarged, the silicone turns out to be more rigid; it is changed into foam, gel, a rubbery material or a hard resin, usually referred to as an elastomer. 

Holding an implant
Holding an example of a silicone implant

Did You Know?

Silicone is applied not just used in implants; it is used almost anywhere in the body when a flesh-like substance is needed. Silicone has been used and applied: to make cardio-vascular prostheses and construct  heart valves; to style catheters which are applied  for motives varying from  drug delivery to  cardiac monitoring in ophthalmology; in the ear, throat, nose, respiratory tract; in dentistry; in the gastrointestinal tract as a prosthesis or ingredient in prosthesis for a major part of the skeletal system; as a  cosmetic agent for treatment  of wrinkles and scars; as a tissue expander; in the urogenital tract, pencil prosthesis; and  in numerous other  applications.  

In the past there were a lot of prejudices against gel implants where it was believed that gel was not a better option for the implants or for that matter prosthetic reconstruction. Now the positive news for women is that there is almost consensus in the scientific circles that these implants are hazards and risks free.

This varies in shell surface (textured vs. smooth), profile (how far it protrudes), shape (shaped or round), and shell thickness and volume. The main mechanisms or components of most implants are a filler (silicone gel, saline, or alternative), a shell (lumen or envelop) and a patch to envelop the manufacturing hole.

 

 

 

How Safe Are Silicone Implants?

In the present contemporary modern society, silicone implants will soon be back. In spite of the fact that they had been banned eleven years ago by the FDA, a very large number of studies have shown that silicone implants are safe.  More so, further findings indicated diseases ascribed and attributed to silicon implants are no more common and frequent in women with implants than in women without implants.  

History of Silicone In Medicine

One of the first applications of silicone in medical implant appeared in the form of life saving tubes implanted into young kids to funnel additional fluid from the brain side into the chest cavity, where the fluids can be securely metabolized and excreted. These shunts were first applied in the later part of the fifties, but at present, silicone in different shapes has come to be a significant part of numerous implants. This is applied in tracheotomy tubes in artificial lenses for the eye, in facial implants and artificial heart valves for reconstructive surgery or birth defects following cancer.  Until the recent past, more than two million patients have undergone medical devices made wholly of silicone or partially of it. 

Use of Silicone in Implants

The application of silicone–gel implants to enhance the shape and size of the goes back to 1963, in a situation, when two doctors applied or wrapped a thin cover of rubbery silicone elastomer around a soft other than firm silicon-gel compound. Since then, a variety of changes has been made in both the containing cover and the gel compound over the years. However, the present fundamental implant design remains the same. Nearly one million American women have obtained silicone implants in more than past three decades. Basically, these silicone implants might have been finished or made either for enlargement or for reconstruction to reinstate a lost for the period of mastectomy (A surgical process to do away with a – cancer tumor). Implanted breasts can look identical to natural ones and can thus greatly decrease one of the most traumatic aspects of mastectomy. As per estimation, approximately forty percent of implants have been for reconstruction.

Numerous studies in the previous medical literature derived the conclusion that silicone implants are a better option for human implantation.

During the 1960s, many papers appeared indicating the satisfactory response of animals (including dogs and rats) to implanted silicone for nearly up to three years. Later animal studies even noted no proof of an important unpleasant reaction to silicone, including silicone implants. Medical reports of silicone being applied successfully to correct and rectify deformities had also been reported during the 1950s.

Usually, a majority of silicone implants are single shell only, however, some silicone implants can be said to be double lumen (one shell inside the other). Going by manufactured parts, many implants are made with filler or a fixed volume in post implantation.

Silicone implants are characteristically applied under general or local anesthesia in an outpatient setting. In case, the mechanism is done for cosmetic motives, the incision is certainly made on the lines of lower edge of the areola, in the inframammary fold or in the axilla. Proceeding further, for post mastectomy reconstruction, the surgical incision is applied and consequently, the implant is kept either deep inside the or beneath the pectoralis major or on the pectoral fascia (sub mammary).  

 

Role of Silicone Implants in Reconstruction

How Far Along is the Approval Process of the FDA?

The Role of the Manufacturer (Mentor) Working on the Project of Implants

Reasons for Implant Surgery

Types of Implants

Surgery Procedure and Techniques

Price of Silicone Implants

Silicone Implants and Cosmetic Use

Application of the New Silicone Implants for Cancer Victims

Issues Associated With Silicone Implants

The Role of New Technology in Making People Safer With Silicone Implants

Living With Implants

Surgery Complications

Effects on Pregnancy, Lactation, and Children

Enlargement and Public Opinion

Removal and Replacement of Silicone Implants

Deciding for a Better Future With Silicone Implants

Mentor and Implants

Silicone Implants and Mammography

Links

Copyright 2005 Silicone Implants (www.silicone-implants.info)
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Information and opinions provided here are never to be construed as medical advice.   Readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health.

US Gov't Report on Silicone Implants    The Cons of Implants