"Gummy Bear" implants

An article recently published in the Plastic Surgery literature:  Keep reading....

There has been much ado about gummy bears lately – even blogger Perez Hilton is talking about them.

Obviously, we are not really talking about the sweet and colorful candy loved by kids and adults alike. We are talking about very cohesive silicone gel-filled breast implants and an endearing, clever and catchy nickname coined by Los Angeles plastic surgeon Grant Stevens, MD, back in 2004.

So why are they making headlines in 2012?

In early March, the FDA announced that it had given its formal and much-coveted nod to a new breast implant. The approval of Sientra’s Silimed line meant many things to many people. For starters, allowing  a third company to market breast implants, of any type, in the US ostensibly broke up the duopoly held by Allergen and Mentor for so long. Doctors now have more choices, and as a result so do patients.

That’s the back story. Soon after the approval, a flurry of media reports suggested that these newly approved Sientra implants were in fact gummies.

Were they? Are they?

A huge debate erupted over what was and was not a “gummy bear” implant.

Plastic Surgery Practice sets the record straight. Gummy bear implants is a nickname. It is not a brand name, and it does not refer to one specific product. It’s a term coined by Stevens to refer to a new generation of breast implants that were are more viscous and “form-stable” than their predecessors.

Bottom line, if Stevens says it is a gummy bear, it is in fact a gummy bear.

“There is no implant made of candy,” he tells Plastic Surgery Practice. “A gummy bear is  a breast implant which is composed of highly cohesive silicone gel or silicone that has higher cohesively than existing silicone implants.”

The true test? If you cut it will it bleed? Just like the fruity gummy candy, highly cohesive silicone gel implants can be cut in half without any oozing.

The new Sientra implants are more cohesive than the currently approved Allergan and Mentor implants. Both Allergan and Mentor do have "gummy bear breast implants" pending FDA review and approval. Allergan's 410, Mentor's CPG, respectively.

At TruYou Plastic surgery we currently have access to the new Sientra implants and will begin using them for the appropriate patient.  We always stay on top of the latest news and safety studies in plastic surgery, because our patient's results depend on our knowledge of the most recent developments. Stay tuned on this subject as we learn more about these newest implants.