The types and differences of breast augmentation implants Part.I [Breast augmentation Korea KIES-U]

In Korea at present, there are 4 water drop type brands, and 5 round type of breast augmentation implants ones imported. There are many patients who ask about the differences in these products whenever I talk to them. Surprisingly there are many doctors who are unaware of these differences. Today, I would like to share about the imported implants that are used in our country as of 2013.

Breast augmentation Korea KIES-U

I think that there were a lot of implants used at our country before the official registration in Food and Drug department in 1990’s. Those who had breast augmentation at this time do not know the origin of the implants that they used.
In 1993, FDA in US restricted the usage of silicone gel implants and only allowed the saline bag type. Korea followed this act and allowed only the importing of saline bag type while restricting the silicone gel. (Korea tends to follow US restrictions)
So as the breast augmentation became popular (in early 2000’s), we could only use the saline bag type therefore, most of the patients had them.




Then in 2007, FDA neutralized this restriction leading to a trade of cohesive gel, i.e. silicone gel implants, causing a great demand and interest of breast augmentation due to the “good feel on the breast”.
At this time, Mentor and McCann (Known as “Allergen” today) were the two companies that were approved in Korea. Both manufactured only the round types.

As time passed, the interest grew and in 2012, Germany’s Polytech silicone gel type ( = water drop type) was approved leading to greater variety of the product in Korea.

Breast augmentation Korea KIES-U plastic surgery clinic

Reason why we still use the silicone type today

A good implant:
First, it does not harm the body or cause side effects.
Second, it should look similar to the body so that it looks natural
Third, the price must be reasonable
Fourth, it should have the durability which the shape does not change over long time period
Fifth, it should be easy to replace for reconstruction
Sixth, it should be adaptable to the body so that it matches well

These are the characteristics that an implant should have. But there is no such one right now. This would only be possible in Sci-Fi movies and it is difficult to make something that is perfectly fitting for the body.

So we still use the silicone type today. The silicone type is soft and feels very much like our body. It is separated well from the body and is well fitting with the body causing no harm, and it can be removed easily.
But there are some disadvantages as well. Separation from the body means that it caused metabolic effect of the body by creating a barrier that leads to capsule. This capsule can become stiff at any time lading to capsular contracture.

Therefore, silicone gel separating itself from the body can be both advantage and a disadvantage.






Entrance of Texturing technology

In order to overcome the limitation of the silicone type, texturing technology on the surface of the implant was applied. The idea behind was that the tissue would grow into the different textures leaving no space therefore avoiding the capsular contracture.

But in conclusion, this was not a successful effort. Textured implants did not have better incidence rate of capsular contracture compared to the non-textured types (especially for the sub-pectoral).

But the textured form prevented the changing of the location or the move abouts of the implant in the body. The main objective behind the usage of the textured type today is to securely fix the location of the implant.

Mentor has a textured implant named Siltex. It has small pores with smooth surface. So there is a lot criticism that it cannot stick to the body properly.
There is a water drop type form Mentor as well called CPG, but this cannot be imported to our country. (I do not know why)



The textured type from Allergen is called Biocell. This is different from Siltex in that it has big pores and rough surface. So Biocell sticks well to the body and has strong texturing. But as always, advantage and disadvantage is like the two sides of the coin. Some say that the rough surface on Boicell causes trauma on the surrounding cells that may cause capsular contracture.

Polyurethane

Since long time ago, many people thought that is there was a coating on the surface of the silicone implant so that the coating extends to the body having one natural feel of the breast and the implant itself that this might lead to the avoidance of capsular contracture.

There were many substances used for the coating material, but the only certified one was polyurethane.

The Polytech’s implant from Germany is known for the polyurethane coating implant. There isn’t much findings or results from the lab experiments for this product at our country so we cannot import it. But I have seen it used in Germany and Hong Kong. The capsular contracture incidence of this polyurethane coated implant in near 0%. The capsular contracture is almost not caused on the body. But we still need to know what long term effect polyurethane has on the body, and the durability of the implant in order to know that it is secure and use it.

We will share more in Part 2.