Many women ask about the gummy bear breast augmentation. The term gummy bear was coined in the late 1990s to allay some of the fears that women had regarding utilizing breast implants.

At the time it was thought that if her breast implant ruptured that the gel inside of the implant would spread throughout the body and cause all sorts of diseases and cancers. We know that this is not true. Gummy Bear was developed to give the impression to women that if the implant ruptured that the internal gel contents would not spread throughout the breast into little droplets and cause injury or disease. This was a very good concept and many implants were then utilized to have a thicker fluid that gave the impression of the gummy bear implant, much like a gummy bear candy.

However, the tradeoff is that the implant is quite firmer than a normal silicone gel implant and feels less natural. To hold its shape as a “gummy bear-like” substance it also must be made firmer. As a result, a little bit of the sophistication of the silicone gel implant was lost due to the level of firmness that was needed to be achieved.

All the silicone gel implants now have what is called a low bleed implant. This means that if the breast implant ruptures the gel does not, so to speak, bleed throughout the breast and body causing any tissue injury. The gummy bear implants are referred to a relatively rigid implant that did not bleed at all. Almost all the gel implants now have a thicker subsidence but not quite as thick as the gummy bear implant that was originally described. Similar to if a gel implant is cut with a knife, you will see that the internal contents do not drip like a fluid but tends to hold to itself and be more cohesive. The gummy bear implants are no longer necessary, so to speak.

We know now that once implants do rupture, they do not spread throughout the body and are usually contained by the capsule or the scar that the body normally forms around an implant. When healthy the body forms a capsule around the implant, it forms a scar-like ‘bag’ or ‘sac’ around the implant so it is rare that any of the contents of a ruptured implant would extend beyond the contained area surrounding the implant.

Please feel free to have a look at our page for Dr. Jacobsen’s breast implant recommendations to learn more about Dr. Jacobsen’s approach.

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