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

This claim in the article states that the silicone in women's breast implants is bulletproof. That statement is not true, although it is true that the silicone did save a woman's life when she got shot up close; the bullet got lodged inside the silicone. However, according to an article on dr-adams.com, "The handgun they used fired bullets at 300 meters per second into blocks of ballistics gel 2.5 meters away. They then measured how deep the bullet penetrated. Afterward, they added a few large saline breast implants in front of the gel and shot it again. They found that the implant reduced the average distance the bullet traveled into the gel by about 20%." Going from that kind of research, I would say this is a little exaggerated.

Answer 2

The case study of a bullet-deflecting silicone breast implant is credible as a documented medical event, but it’s important to view it in context. Instances of implants altering bullet trajectories are extremely rare and not widely recognized in trauma science as reliable protection. The article may unintentionally imply a protective value to implants, but medical experts view this as an unusual outcome rather than a practical or replicable benefit.

Comments

Really good answer but to back it up, you might want to include an article backing up your claim in case someone tries to call you out for not having a source to connect to.

Answer 3

This claim is very misleading and absolutely false. Nowhere in the article linked does it state that breast implants are bulletproof! The only thing the CNN article discusses is the fact that the implant stopped the bullet from hitting central organs, not that implants themselves are completely bulletproof. This claim is not scientifically proven after doing research. There are sources that say it can decrease the likelihood of death from gunshot wounds but nothing that says it is 100% effective.

Answer 4

While CNN is an extremely credible source, nowhere in the article does it state that silicone breast implants are actually bulletproof. Granted, there have been several instances where a silicone breast implant has changed the projectory of a bullet, letting it miss vital organs, this doesn't mean it is entirely bulletproof. The victim is still shot, just not killed. If someone markets glass as bulletproof and it shatters when shot, but no one gets killed, the glass is still not bulletproof.

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

Answer 5

This claim is misleading. While the doctors noted that the silicone implants made a difference in this specific case, they did not say that this would be true in every case. That is important to note, as in another case where the bullet came from another angle the implants may be ineffective. More conclusive research would need to be done to make this claim truthful, so the claim remains misleading for now.

Answer 6

The claim that "silicone breast implants are bulletproof" is false and misleading. This claim states a much greater idea that is untrue. The article that is linked as the source refers to a single case in which the women's breast implant saved her from a gun shot wound puncturing her vital organs. The National Library of Medicine published an article referring to the same case as the CNN article, however through their extensive research on case it stated clearly that the implant may have had some impact in changing the trajectory preventing the bullet from hitting the thoracic cavity but it is specific to this case only.

Answer 7

he CNN article doesn’t suggest that silicone breast implants are bulletproof. Instead, both the article and the medical case study explain that the woman’s implants helped save her life by deflecting the bullet’s path away from her vital organs, rather than stopping it completely.

There are other cases where implants have offered similar protection. For example, a study in the peer-reviewed journal ePlasty found that saline implants reduced bullet penetration by “20.6% compared to cases with no implant” and suggested that silicone implants might offer even more reduction. Although implants can provide some level of protection, they aren’t a dependable way to stop or deflect bullets.

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

The claim that silicone breast implants are bullet proof is false. While silicone can change the directory of a bullet due to the liquid inside, the articles linked to the claim do not support the idea that they are bullet proof. The article instead claims that a bullet shot into a woman with implants' breasts will most likely redirect or slow it down. There are other instances of breast implants redirecting bullets and saving women's lives. However, ultimately the claim that they are bullet proof is simply untrue. 

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 9

The article by CNN describes a incident where a silicone implant reportedly altered the bullet's trajectory, sparing vital organs like the heart and lungs. Despite everything in the article being true, the claim that silicone in breast implants is bulletproof is completely false. Bulletproof is defined in the dictionary as "inpenitrable to bullets." Despite the bullet not killing her, it still went through her implant, making it not "bulletproof." Because of this, this claim is false.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bulletproof

Answer 10

Silicone breast implants are not bulletproof according to Dr. Adam's blog they describe that the implants cannot stop a bullet and there could be potentially life or limb-threatening emergencies if they are ruptured while inside your body cavity. If you have implants you shouldn't try to sacrifice your chest because the implants will not stop the bullet. 

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