Breast implants, science and the court: The price of progress

The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) lifting of the 14-year ban on general access to silicone gel-filled breast implants in November 2006 was welcome news to plastic surgeons and patients seeking additional options for breast enhancement and reconstruction. As physicians who have more than 40 years of clinical experience with these devices, plastic surgeons have long expected the official recognition of implant safety and eventual lifting of most restrictions by the FDA. Nevertheless, the long process that has taken us from the 1992 FDA moratorium to the agency's current resolution of the controversy exacted a high price, both economically and emotionally.The breast implant controversy offers an example of how, in the world of modern journalism, emotion can take precedence over reason. Beginning in 1990, following the broadcast of a highly inflammatory segment on “Face to Face with Connie Chung,” patients' concerns over the safety of breast implants escalated to the level of a pandemic. The plastic surgery organizations, and others in the medical community, …