Breast Implant Update from Sound Plastic Surgery

Over the past year, much has changed in the landscape of cosmetic breast implant surgery. The types of breast implants that we recommend to Seattle area breast augmentation patients have changed somewhat. We have used the various textured and form-stable implants offered by the American implant makers. We have also used the Ideal smooth round saline implant in a few patients. Given this past experience, we continue to recommend the Allergan smooth round cohesive silicone gel implant for cosmetic breast augmentation. This type of breast implant has been available in the USA since 2006, has a long track record for patient safety and is an FDA-approved medical device.

We are starting this discussion with our patients because, over in Europe, the form-stable and textured silicone implant from Allergan has been pulled off of the market due to concerns about a rare lymphoma called ALCL (atypical large cell lymphoma). After a comprehensive multi-center review, ALCL has only been associated with silicone and saline implants that have a textured implant shell. To date, the smooth round silicone implant from Allergan that we use for our patients has NOT been associated with ALCL.

In 2019 France’s National Agency for Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) banned the use of two textured implants produced by Allergan, which is an American company. The rest of the European market and other parts of the world followed suit.

As a response to the European removal of the textured silicone implant from its list of approved medical devices, Allergan withdrew its ‘Biocell’ textured silicone breast implants from the US market. To date, the other two manufacturers of textures silicone breast implants in the USA, Mentor and Sientra, have kept their textured silicone breast implants on the market. There are no other makers of FDA-approved textured implants in the USA.

At Sound Plastic Surgery, we continue to recommend the smooth round silicone implants produced by Allergan for our breast augmentation patients. We believe these implants are safe, durable and have an over twelve year track record of durability in our clinical experience.

Come meet the board-certified Plastic Surgeons at Sound Plastic Surgery in Seattle to discuss your breast augmentation options.