Silicone in breast implants are bulletproof

Question

"Doctors noted that the silicone implant was likely responsible for deflecting the bullet’s trajectory – ultimately saving the woman’s life."

- CNN

Comments

The claim references an instance in where a woman was shot and fortunately survived due to the silicone breast implants in her chest. While there is truth in the fact that the woman was able to survive due to her silicone breast implants, it is not safe to state that silicone breast implants are bulletproof, as the claim can be very misleading due to the fact that silicone itself is not bulletproof.

In a study published by the National Library of Medicine, it is stated that "The impact of a gunshot is tied to a bullet's path and placement within the body.12 The extent of the resulting trauma is influenced by multiple factors, one of which being the physical characteristics of the tissue that has been penetrated.12 Thus, if there is some sort of barrier (eg, bone or implant) to slow or deflect a bullet, it may serve as a protective factor." This means that while the bullet was affected by the silicone and different parts of the patients body, the silicone itself within the breast implant is not bulletproof

In a YouTube video posted by TAOFLEDERMAUS, a test is conducted where different  rounds of bullet are shot at a standard silicone breast.  in the video we can see that silicone breast implants do affect that trajectory and impact, it is negligible at best so they are in fact NOT bulletproof,


sources
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjHn3RPdGIg

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The claim that "silicone in breast implants are bulletproof" is misleading and not entirely true. The link to the article is from CNN, and the actual headline for that article is "Woman’s breast implant deflects bullet, saving her life".
So, technically, the woman's breast implant caught the bullet and saved her life. proving that silicone in breast implants is bulletproof isn't true because it happened by chance that the woman's breast implant caught the bullet and prevented further injuries. The article says that SAGE medical journal published a study that said the breast implant deflected the bullet away from the 30 year old woman's vital organs. It is important to note that SAGE has received funding from the FACS board of plastic surgeons. The rest of the article mainly talks about the medical technicalities. Along with how the woman's other injuries and how she's doing. All in all, people shouldn't think that getting and having silicone in breast implants will protect you from bullets.

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I completely agree; saying silicone implants are ‘bulletproof’ is a huge stretch. The original article makes it sound like they function like body armor when they might slow a bullet slightly in rare cases. The experiment by Dr. Adams is a great example—it shows that implants reduce penetration depth but don’t stop bullets. It’s wild how often headlines twist scientific findings into something dramatic. Did you find any cases where an implant prevented serious injury, or is it mostly just altering trajectory?

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The statement that “silicone breast implants are bulletproof” is incorrect and misleading. While there is one unusual case where an implant may have altered the trajectory of a bullet, this does not mean that breast implants are a reliable form of protection. As Dr. Adams points out, while implants might offer a very minor level of protection in rare scenarios, they are not designed to stop bullets or prevent serious injury.
Dr. Adams' Blog discussing the effects of breast implants on bullet penetration: Can a breast implant stop a bullet?
CNN Article covering the case where an implant may have deflected a bullet: CNN Article on Implants and Bullet Deflection

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Your claim is interesting, but I think the wording might be a bit misleading. The CNN article states that the silicone implant *deflected* the bullet, not that it made the woman completely bulletproof. There's a big difference between an implant altering a bullet’s trajectory and it actually stopping a bullet like a Kevlar vest would. Did you come across any additional studies or expert opinions on how silicone behaves under gunfire? It would be helpful to see whether this was a rare case or if silicone implants have a consistent ability to redirect bullets.

Answer 1

The claim that silicone breast implants are bulletproof is completely false, and CCN is continuing to spread misinformation. The article talks about how a woman's breast implant was able to help change the trajectory of a bullet; this change in trajectory did lead to the woman keeping her life. However, the bullet actually ruptured the silicone implant, which completely disproves this claim that they are "bulletproof.". Even though the silicone implant stopped the woman from dying due to a fatal wound, she still ended up with the bullet wound, broken ribs, and broken implants. That implant is definitly not bulletproof!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

Answer 2

As other answers have pointed out before me, this claim is mostly false. While silicone implants have been found to be able to redirect bullets, they are not able to directly stop a bullet. The original article did not make this claim. There have been instances of other people miraculously surviving a bullet wound due to silicone implants however, so I wouldn’t completely discount the potential life saving effects of implants.

Sources: 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2513826X19898821

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

 

Answer 3

The claim above that "Silicone in breast implants are bulletproof" is very false. In the article given by the publisher, CNN claims that a woman's life was saved because her silicone breast implants helped stop a bullet but no where did they say that the silicone in the breast implant is bulletproof only that it stopped from doing more damage to her. In an article titled, "Can a Breast Implant Stop a Bullet" by Dr-Adams.com. They ran an experiment to see if this claim was true and they came to the conclusion quickly that, "It's safe to say that breast implants cannot stop a bullet." All in all, This claim is false and breast implants are NOT bulletproof. 

https://www.dr-adams.com/blog/can-a-breast-implant-stop-a-bullet/

Answer 4

Silicone breast implants are not bulletproof. The article that was brought up is really misleading and made a story into something that it is not. In the story a woman with breast implants had a bullet shot towards her and thankfully for her, her implants stopped it from puncturing anymore than in her implant and into her organs. This article does not prove that implants are silicon, it just shows that it can happen in certain circumstances. The article claims this is "one of only a handful of instances recorded in medical literature where a breast implant played a role in saving a patient’s life," but there is no proven way of the actual silicone always being bulletproof. This claim exaggerates the safety that silicone implants can cause and although it did save her life, it does not in anyway prove the original claim. These implants may have some kind of protection but not 100% bulletproof. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

Answer 5

This claim that breast implants are misleading and false because after during some research I came across multiple articles from CNN, ABC7 Los Angeles, and Science Alert about how a women was saved by her silicone breast implant because the bullet went through the implant. If there were other cases of this happening then maybe it would be more true but it seems that she just got lucky. According to CNN if the bullet would have gone through the left side of her chest where the heart and lungs are than it would have been way more serious but, since the shot was on the other side it wasn't as serious as it could have been which supports my claim of she got lucky. Though, ABC7 says that the doctor that operated on her says that she could have died if it weren't for the implant which makes me think even if the implant saved her life it is still not bullet proof because the bullet still went through the implant it didn't go all the way to the women's insides, so it's not bullet proof but does have a small possibility of saving someone's life. I got my information from the given article in the claim and ABC7: https://abc7.com/breast-implants-stop-bullet-silicone-save-womans-life/6120472/

Answer 6

This claim is misleading. Although silicone breast implants may alter the trajectory of bullets, they are not bulletproof. Both the CNN article and the original source of the article, Sage Journals, don't claim that breast implants are bulletproof either. The implant acts as another layer of protection and it's only in certain cases the implant luckily slows down and/or changes the bullet's route. It's also possible that breast implants rupture from impact, which could cause silicone to spread within the body, causing inflammation and further implications. So it's not a fact that silicone breast implants will save lives or are bulletproof, but there are definitely cases where they protect vital organs. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2140495-breast-implants-can-lessen-gunshot-injuries-by-slowing-bullets/

Answer 7

This claim is misleading and exaggerated. CNN has a left-center bias and a mostly factual accuracy score as rated by Media Bias/Fact Check; and while CNN is not the most reliable source, the article itself is quite reliable. However, the article at no point claims that breast implants are “bulletproof” as there is no real evidence of this claim. The research for how breast implants affect bullet trajectory is strictly limited to case study as there would be no ethical way to form this theory into an experiment. However, case studies analyzed and produced by the National Institute of Health showed that silicone breast implants have been found to change or alter the trajectory of bullets that hit the chest. This change in path can be life-saving as the silicone gel can move the bullet away from the ribs, lung, and heart which decreases the likelihood of the gun shot being a mortal wound. One case study on this topic was, “In a recent case report describing such an injury, the patient was taken to the operating room emergently where she underwent a pericardial window, which was ultimately negative. She later underwent outpatient implant replacement, at which time multiple shotgun pellets were found within the implant.

6 The authors of this case report concluded that the breast implants prevented bullet penetration into the thoracic cavity.6” (NIH, Breast Implants Save Lives: Gunshot Wound to a Silicone Gel Implant, 2023). This case study showed an example of a complete protection from the bullet by the silicone implant, however, other case studies showed only a change in direction and speed of the bullet. The research is not ideal nor perfect, however, breast implants are not “bulletproof”, as the silicone was punctured, even though they may play a role in bullet protection. 

LINKS:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/21/americas/breast-implant-bullet-wound-wellness-intl-scli/index.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

Answer 8

This claim is exaggerated and false. Breast implants are not bulletproof, rather, they acted as a barrier in this case, slowing down the bullet. Claiming they are bulletproof is a far reach. "...extent of the resulting trauma is influenced by multiple factors, one of which being the physical characteristics of the tissue that has been penetrated. Thus, if there is some sort of barrier (eg, bone or implant) to slow or deflect a bullet, it may serve as a protective factor.". This quote explains how, while extremely fortunate this woman was, breast implants are not inherently bulletproof, but were still a contributing factor to her survival. 

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9949879/

Answer 9

The claim that "silicone breast implants are bulletproof" is misleading. While there is an example of a woman surviving a bullet injury due to her silicone breast implant altering the trajectory of the bullet, the implant did not stop the bullet completely. The CNN article in question accurately states that the implant deflected the bullet, preventing it from hitting vital organs, but this should not be construed as the implant being bulletproof.

Scientific studies and expert opinions clarify that silicone implants can potentially alter a bullet's path in rare cases, but they do not provide reliable protection. A study published in ePlasty showed that saline implants can reduce bullet penetration by 20.6%, and silicone implants may offer similar effects. However, this does not guarantee that breast implants can stop or deflect bullets in every situation.

In short, while breast implants may incidentally reduce injury in rare cases, they are not designed to stop bullets and should not be relied upon as a form of protection. Therefore, the claim that silicone breast implants are bulletproof is false.

Answer 10

All though the breast implant was said to have defected a bullet it doesn't entirely mean that silicone breast implants are bullet proof. According to the FDA breast implants are made of two different saline-filled and silicone gel-filled materials. Both have a silicone outer shell and vary in size, shell thickness, shell surface texture, and shape. Due to their material you cannot claim that they are entirely bullet proof. This claim is misleading and could potentially lead to mis-informed people getting breast implants to potentially "stop" a bullet. Where the woman was and the trajectory of the bullet the breast implant helped slow down the bullet enough so that there wasn't a lot of damage. If the woman had been facing a different direction she would have most definitely suffered more severe damages to her body. 

In the source they do not claim that a breast implant is bullet proof. CNN stated that the bullet had saved the woman's life and there was not mention that the breast implant is bullet proof. 

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/what-know-about-breast-implants#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20types%20of,%2C%20and%20shape%20(contour).