Follow-Up: Rupture rate - Sientra vs Inspira Soft Touch? 5’4, 118lbs, 32C, mom of 2. Looking to go 300-355cc silicone moderate.

Hi flycm; It is important to consider that quoted failure rates come from limited patient studies that the manufacturers send to the FDA, and often the data is manipulated statistically to provide rates of events. Just look at any prescription package insert and you see that the information is highly technical and comes from limited clinical trials. Those are the quoted numbers. Even more bizarre, a Canadian study for their health regulator of American data on Mentor implants showed a failure rate of over 24 percent but we know that isn't the case in real life!! If you look at most failure rate studies among implants sold in the US, their failure rates are less than 10 percent over 10 years and all within 1 to 2 percent of each other. The companies even source their gel from the same supplier. It's like asking which is the better car, a BMW, Audi or Mercedes. It depends. We recommend MRI to asses failure at 5 and 10 years and then at 3 year intervals after 10 years as we don't have data after 10 years but it is going to climb. I do not recommend replacing implants at the 10 year anniversary as that would mean more than 90 percent of them would be okay and didn't need to be replaced. Implant quality control has improved substantially over the past 10 years so they are just not that much different from one another. Consider other important factors such as the firmness of the implants. BTW, there is NO data that implant firmness is correlated to less rippling when comparing implant softness and cohesiveness. Also, all implants sold are cohesive, some are just more cohesive or firmer than others. Firmness will cause more upper pole firmness and roundness in the round implant. Personally, if I were a woman I wouldn't want a gummy bear round implant as they are too firm and round. The "Soft-Touch has been a popular implant in Europe but they also like the shaped implants there. When I trained, we wanted the softest implants possible to best resemble natural breast tissue. There is less "wear and tear" on the tissue as well. Shaped implants are much softer from Sientra than the Allergan, "Gummy Bear", "Form Stable" implant. Equally if not more important, the amount and quality of your breast tissue, implant placement below muscle and how the breast interacts with the implant are important considerations to achieving a great, long lasting result. 

The differences in rupture rates  is very small though long term numbers are not yet available for the Soft Touch specifically. There is no one type that is best for all patients; for example the cohesive "gummies" are very firm and ripple less but feel unnatural. The Soft Touch implants are slightly less firm but not as soft as first generation Inspira. Sientra implants have a good track record.

Thank you for your questions. In the end, the rupture rate for the two implants is probably roughly equivalent. A rate of 7% vs 8% for example does not really mean that much to you. Further, just because you choose the implant with the lowest rupture rate does not assure you that you will not have a rupture. I would choose the implant you feel meets your goals and not lose too much sleep over rupture rates.Hope this helps!