Mammography and breast implants

Problems with breast implants have been well publicized in recent years as thousands of women have come forward to testify of various complications. Many women have had problems with silicon breast implants rupturing. Sometimes such ruptures are obvious due to a change in shape or extreme pain, but other times ruptures are barely noticeable. One method that has been widely used to determine if an implant has actually burst is mammography, a procedure that essentially takes an X-ray of the breast. Physicians believe that 90 percent of breast implant failure can be detected with mammography. However, many times a mammogram is either inconclusive, or can lead to a wrong diagnosis. Many women are being told that their implants are intact when they aren't, and others are being told their implants have ruptured when they haven't.