Plastic surgeon Robert Whitfield MD explains what to consider before getting breast implants, covering cancer risks, infection, and biofilm. About 2.2 million cosmetic implants are placed worldwide each year, and implant-based reconstruction is still the most common method in the US.
About 2.2 million implants are placed annually worldwide.
Implant-based breast reconstruction (implants).
If somebody is considering implants still today, because we know that I, I'm curious the percentage of people that are getting implants compared to before, knowing what we know now and then also, yeah, somebody's still thinking about getting implants. What do they need? Like, what would you say to them?
So I think when you're, you're going through the process of determining, you know, whether it's for cancer or cosmetics, what are the long term ramifications, you need to understand that this is an evolving issue. There are certain amounts of problems with breast implant associated cancers. Those have to be explained and those are part of the informed decision process. You know, biofilm is part of the informed decision process. Under understanding that implants of any variety can get infected. As just part of the informed decision process. That's still the most common form of breast reconstruction in the United States is still going to be with the implant. Because of the size of the country and the access to that. That's going to be always the form that's most dominant. And then for cosmetics, about 2.2 million implants are placed annually worldwide. And that number is going up, not down.
