Breast implants come in all shapes and sizes.
Basic differences in implants:
- volume
- shell: smooth or textured
- profile: low, medium, or high
- shape: round or anatomic / shaped
- fill: saline or gel
The gummy bear implant is the style 410 implant. It is essentially the fourth generation of gel implant. It is a shaped anatomic implant, firmer than current implants. Due to its shape, it has a textured surface so it will not move or rotate.
The gel implants we use now are cohesive gel implants. In English that means the implant fill is not a liquid, but thicker like jello. The reason to thicken the internal fill is to help prevent “gel bleed.” It is thought this microscopic leakage leads to capsular contracture, the hardening of the breast. The implants still feel soft. The gummy bear implant fill is thicker than current cohesive gel breast implants. It essentially is supercohesive, and the thought is it will have lower capsular contracture rates.
Great! I love the whole name gummy bear. This all sounds swell. Where can I get one?
Ah. Here’s the rub. The FDA approved cohesive gel implants in Nov 2006, but did not include the style 410. For some reason, they still have not been approved. Don’t be disheartened. Most women currently get round smooth gel implants. Why? They look natural and move like natural breasts. The most common type of implant most plastic surgeons use around the country is a smooth round implant. Why would we use round implants and not put in something supposedly shaped to look like a breast? Excellent question (I love my educated Bay Area crowd)! Textured shaped implants were the rage in the early 90s. They were supposed to look better, have lower capsular contracture rates, yadda yadda. But about 5-8 years out, we saw issues with them. They can rotate, have wrinkles which get stuck and are palpable, many have higher rippling rates, and many had higher leakage rates. A study came out which showed by MRI when behind the muscle the “shaped” implant gave no difference in shape than a “round” implant. In other words, when behind the muscle, they look the same. So the pendulum swung back to the round implant. (All of the implants you see on my website are smooth round implants.)
The style 410 may be an answer for some patients in the future. For patients with whisper thin skin, patients after mastectomy who have no natural tissue, or patients with recurrent capsular contractures no matter what they try, the gummy bear breast implant may be helpful. But it likely has many of the issues we have seen before in textured anatomic shaped implants. And due to its firmer fill, it can’t be compressed as much, so requires a larger incision. Most patients don’t want a larger scar.
So the gummy bear style 410 breast implant.
It will likely someday be another implant in our legion of implants we use. But currently there is no word on when they will be approved, and again, they aren’t for everyone.