Mammograms With Breast Implants

If you have breast implants, you may be wondering if the usual guidelines and recommendations about mammograms apply to you and whether a mammogram could damage your implants or affect your results. Here are answers to some common questions about mammograms and breast implants.

Yes — a mammogram is a safe and effective test for people who have breast implants. 

People who have breast implants for cosmetic augmentation should follow the same guidelines on screening for breast cancer with mammograms as people who don’t have them.

People who have breast implants for reconstruction may or may not need regular screening mammograms, depending on the type of breast cancer surgery they had and other factors.

When you get a mammogram, your breast is compressed between two horizontal plastic plates. The compression can cause a breast implant to rupture, but it’s very rare. If your implant ruptures, it would much more often be due to another cause besides a mammogram.

In general, it’s more obvious when a saline-filled implant ruptures than when a silicone gel-filled one does. That’s because when a saline-filled implant ruptures, the saline typically leaks out quickly (over the course of a few days), and the breast appears deflated. The rupture of a silicone gel-filled implant may not cause any visible signs or symptoms. Often, the only way to detect that a silicone gel-filled implant has ruptured is to get an MRI or ultrasound.  

Learn more about rupture in silicone-filled and saline-filled implants.

A breast implant, whether it’s filled with salt water (saline) or silicone gel, can block the view of the surrounding breast tissues and make it harder to detect breast cancer on a mammogram.

It’s important to tell the staff at the imaging facility that you have implants, both when you make the appointment and when you arrive for your appointment.

To help make more of the tissue viewable on the mammogram, the technologist will take about four extra pictures called “implant displacement views.” The technologist will gently push the implant back against the chest wall and pull more of the breast tissue forward before compressing the breast.

The mammogram may take a little more time than it would for someone without implants because more pictures are taken. Also, the scar tissue that forms around a breast implant may make getting a mammogram more uncomfortable or painful or could make some of the pictures more challenging to get. 

If a mammogram is done by a technologist who has experience with imaging breast implants, then the images should be clear and accurate. However, there is a very small risk that a possible tumor won’t be detected because the implants make it more difficult to get clear images of the breast tissue. If the implants were placed on top of the chest muscle (this is also called “prepectoral” or “over the muscle” placement), it may, in some cases, be harder for the technologist to get clear images of all of the breast tissue. 

“Additional imaging tests — such as contrast-enhanced breast MRI — can visualize more of the breast tissue around an implant. However, breast MRI is not recommended as a replacement for mammography in women at average risk of breast cancer. It’s used in special circumstances and/or in women at higher-than-average risk,” says Debra L. Monticciolo, MD, FACR, FSBI, a breast radiologist who is the past-president of the Society of Breast Imaging and the American College of Radiology.

Learn more about how to find out your individual risk for breast cancer. 

Whether or not you need to get mammograms after having breast cancer surgery and reconstruction with breast implants depends on the type of surgery you had, your individual risk factors, and your age.

People who've had a double (or bilateral) mastectomy that removed all their breast tissue typically don't need to get annual screening mammograms. People who've had a single mastectomy or a lumpectomytypically do need to continue getting mammograms.

It’s a good idea to develop a breast cancer screening or monitoring plan with your doctor that includes physical exams and may include other tests such as breast MRI and ultrasound.

Learn more about mammograms after breast surgery and guidelines on when and how often to get mammograms.