The implants used in plastic surgery procedures nowadays are external medical prostheses that are inserted into different areas of the body to add more volume and increase the size of that feature of the body. In the United States, we use implants to augment the breasts and the buttocks. While in other countries it is legal to use implants to augment the hips, this is not the case in the United States where we only use fat grafting for hip augmentation.
Breast implants have been used for more than half a century now, and we are now at the fifth generation of implants. With each new generation of breast implants, manufacturers are constantly improving them and reducing complications. For example, the incidence rate of capsular contracture was much higher in the past compared to what it is today.
While the breast implants used today by experienced, board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States are very safe and of a high quality, they still come with a ten to fifteen year warranty. After the warranty expires, patients should pay more attention and maybe consider undergoing a revision surgery to remove and replace the implants with new ones.
Butt implants don’t have such a long history as breast implants; however, they are commonly used nowadays and with an impressive success rate. The plastic surgeon will create an incision inside the buttocks in the intragluteal fold and use it to create a pocket in the muscles of the buttocks. This pocket will accommodate the implant.
Unlike with breast implants, there is no limited warranty for gluteal implants. If no complications occur, they can be kept inside the buttocks permanently. When it comes to butt implants, there are few complications associated with their use compared to the use of breast implants. For example, the risk of developing capsular contracture is much smaller and also butt implants don’t rupture or leak. In other words, we could say that gluteal implants are more durable than breast implants. But why is this?
Many patients want to know why breast implants are not as durable as gluteal implants. There is one simple aspect that we need to take into consideration regarding the durability and the lifespan of implants used for different areas of the body. Breast implants are created to look and feel exactly like the soft tissues of the breasts while butt implants are made to feel like the toned muscles of the rear end. At the same time, there is an immense amount of pressure that we put on the buttocks every moment compared to the pressure on the breasts. Butt implants need to be more durable as they are inserted into the gluteal muscles that are active in any movement of the lower part of the body and also need to sustain the weight when sitting down or lying on the back.