IMPLANTS: The Real Facts

In response to an enormous amount of misinformation proliferated by the media, we would like to provide some answers to questions we have received from our patients, about implants.

There has been a great deal of hype and, with it, concern about bacteria getting inside implants. Implants have been used for more than forty years and in all that time, there has been no documented evidence of bacteria entering into and subsequently growing in an implant within a person's body. Here are the facts.

1. To the best of our knowledge, in order to get inside an implant, bacteria would have to be introduced during a surgical procedure (i.e., an operation). That could only occur if sterile precautions and techniques, followed as a standard, failed. Such a failure in sterile precautions is extremely rare in today's modern surgery.

2. The salt water in an implant contains no known nutrients upon which the bacteria can feed. So, simply put, even if the bacteria were to enter the implant, they would die for lack of "food."

3. Water can indeed pass through the implant shell, but bacteria cannot. The inability of bacteria to pass through the shell is based on osmosis. The silicone shell of the implant is semipermeable. That means that there are tiny, molecular openings in the shell. The openings, too small to be seen even with a microscope, are too small to allow "large" molecules to pass through. Salt molecules are simply too big to pass through the implant shell. Bacteria, viruses, mold and fungus are also too large to get through the shell.

4. Because water molecules can pass through the shell and go "back and forth," the water inside the shell is continuously being refreshed.
There is a technique, which we have used for years, and is becoming a standard, that makes contamination even less likely. This procedure employs a "closed system," one that is entirely sealed from the room air, with which it then never comes into contact. The "closed system" is used to transfer the sterile salt water from its container, with no exposure to the room air, directly into the implant.

Another area of concern about implants is the fear that the implant might deflate. Here too, your fears can be easily allayed. Remember that osmosis is the process by which molecules pass back and forth through a semipermeable barrier. Because the concentration of the salt water inside the implant is exactly the same as that outside, the process of osmosis requires that fro every molecule that "leaves" another needs to enter to replace it. That means that water is constantly being refreshed and yet the implant doesn't deflate.

We hope this article has helped to alleviate some of the concerns you may have had about implants. If you have any questions, please feel free to call our office at (845) 338-0789. We're here to serve you.