BREAST IMPLANT BASICS – SHAPES AND FILLER MATERIAL

BREAST IMPLANT BASICS – SHAPES AND FILLER MATERIAL

Breast implants themselves are made up of two parts. The first part is similar to the outside of balloon and is called the breast implant outer shell. All breast implant outer shells are made of a silicone rubber-like polymer. Inside this outer shell is the actual filler material. The filler materials of FDA approved breast implants in the USA are either saline (salt-water) or silicone gel. The thickness of the filler material ranges from an outright liquid (salt-water) to varying thicknesses of a silicone gel. Silicone gel can range from a liquidy (maple syrup like) thickness to the extreme thickness of a gummy bear candy (which is a semi-solid material). From a chemistry standpoint, silicone gels can be produced of varying viscosity (thicknesses) by progressively increasing the length of the polymer chains within the silicone gel or the degree of cross-linking between the polymer chains within the silicone gel. Nowadays the silicone gel can be so incredibly thick (gummy) that the breast implant keeps its shape even after being cut in half! (this is marketed as form-stable).

The two basic shapes of breast implants are either round or anatomical teardrop shaped (nicknamed “gummy bear” implants). The anatomical teardrop shaped “gummy bear” implants attempt to mimic the shape of a natural breast by having more projection (more gel) in the lower half of the teardrop implant (hence the term teardrop) and a flatter gently sloped upper half. When outside the human body and held upright in your hand, the anatomical teardrop shaped “gummy bear” implant looks somewhat similar to the profile of a natural female breast. The natural (non-augmented) female breast generally has more tissue in its lower half as compared to its upper half when a female stands upright.

These two basic implant shapes also come at varying degrees of projection – known as profiles. The profile of a breast implant refers to the level of forward projection from the chest in relation to the base width of the implant. A higher profile breast implant will create a more prominent silhouette than a lower profile breast implant of the same size. For example, the images below show the different profiles available for the same size implant (meaning all the breast implants in the image could represent a 300 cc size implant, but the profiles/projection are actually different for this same 300cc size implant). Another way to look at it is that all the breast implants in the images below have the same amount of silicone gel within them (ex: 300 cc), but the projection of the implant varies with the profile type (profile type: low vs moderate vs full etc).

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