Not the best implant — the right one
Which product is superior is a question with no answer. The question that does have one is: what properties does my tissue need? Below is only what you need to make that judgement.
Medically reviewed byKikap Kim · Chief Director, Plastic Surgery
The brand is decided last
Most people arrive at consultation with a brand name already in hand. In practice, though, the brand is the last thing decided — because other things have to be settled first: how much cover your tissue can give, which plane the implant goes into, what diameter and projection suit this body. Once those conditions narrow, the products that meet them usually come down to a handful.
Reverse the order and problems follow. Fix the brand first and make the body fit it, and you end up forcing a size into a space that does not take it, or choosing a volume you did not need. That is also why we carry all three manufacturers — if a clinic stocks only one brand, that brand becomes the answer for everyone.
So read what follows not as a shopping list, but as a glossary — so that when the explanation comes at consultation, you know what is being said.
The four things that actually differ between products
Size and shape are covered in the sizing guide. What is set out here is what differs between products even at the same size and the same shape.
Surface — the texture of the shell
Whether the outer surface is smooth or finely textured changes how tissue responds to it and how the implant settles. Each manufacturer has its own surface technology, with its own name and method.
Gel — the character of the silicone inside
Silicone is not one thing: viscosity and elasticity vary. The softer the gel, the softer the feel and the more natural the movement; the firmer it is, the better the shape holds. Which is preferable is decided by how much tissue you have.
Fill — how much goes in
The same shell filled to a different degree gives a different result. Under-filled reads as more natural but is more prone to rippling; filled more, it gains firmness at the cost of a harder feel.
Traceability — can you check it later?
Whether you can find out years later exactly what is inside you differs by product. It is better to know in advance which means of verification applies — a chip, a warranty, an approval number.
The three manufacturers we carry
All three are used with authenticity assurance, and the final choice is made together at consultation after your breast type and tissue condition have been assessed.
| Brand | Manufacturer / origin | Characteristics | Considered when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motiva | Establishment Labs · Costa Rica | SmoothSilk® micro-surface with ErgonomiX™ gel — teardrop when standing, spreading when lying down, responding to gravity. Q Inside® chip allows the record to be looked up. US FDA and European CE approved. | A first augmentation where natural feel comes first; revision for capsular contracture |
| Mentor | Johnson & Johnson MedTech · USA | A brand running since 1969, holding the longest clinical dataset in the world. MemoryGel™ cohesive gel balances shape stability against softness. US FDA approved. | Wanting firmer volume; placing weight on long-term data; implant replacement |
| Bouns | HansBiomed · Republic of Korea | A precision sizing system subdivided by width, height and volume. The two sides can be specified differently, which helps with asymmetry. MFDS approval no. 15-1620. | Correcting left–right asymmetry; when fine-grained sizing for Korean body proportions is needed |
How to verify an implant is genuine
This is what worries patients travelling from abroad most. The means of verification do exist, and you are entitled to ask for them. U&U uses only officially imported genuine products, and we make the details of the implant used in your surgery available to you.
In Motiva's case, Q Inside® technology is embedded as an implantable unique device identifier (UDI), so which product was placed can be looked up long afterwards. Alongside it, the Motiva warranty registers the product assurance. Domestically made products are verified by their MFDS approval number, imported ones by whether they were officially imported.
Asking to verify is not rude. If anything, how a clinic answers that request is itself evidence for your judgement. By Motiva warranty statistics, U&U has been the highest-volume Motiva clinic for two consecutive years, and is an officially certified Preservé clinic in Korea.
What to make sure you ask at consultation
Ask these rather than brand names, and it becomes clear what the clinic is actually judging by.
- Why this product is being proposed — is there an explanation tied to a specific property of your tissue?
- Whether the clinic carries other manufacturers — with only one option, comparison is impossible by definition.
- What would change with a different choice — are the trade-offs of the alternatives spelled out?
- How authenticity can be verified — by chip, warranty or approval number?
- How your condition is followed afterwards — is there a regular check-up system, and what happens once you return home?
- Where the proposed size sits relative to the ceiling your tissue allows — if it sits at the ceiling, you should hear why.
What decides the result more than the product does
Honestly: the difference in outcome opens up more in how the pocket is made than in which brand goes into it. The same implant settles naturally when the space is accurate, and rides up or drifts outward when it is not. That is why we work towards approaches that minimise tissue damage (Preservé among them) — the less you cut and spread, the better both recovery and shape.
And implant surgery does not end at the surgery. U&U runs a care programme of regular breast ultrasound after surgery, checking the state of the implant and breast health together. Silicone implants can rupture without symptoms, so the absence of discomfort is not proof that everything is fine.
Whichever product you choose, without checking these two — pocket design and long-term follow-up — the comparison loses half its meaning.
The implant you touched is not the breast you will feel
There are plenty of videos of implants being handled, and plenty of people choose a product on that basis. And it is true that they differ in the hand. The one with a completely smooth shell feels softer; the one with fine texturing on the surface feels springier and firmer. That much is correct.
The problem is that this sensation does not carry over to the feel of an operated breast. What you touch after surgery is not the implant but your own tissue stretched around it, with tissue, skin and capsule layered in between.
So the values that decide post-operative feel lie elsewhere: the amount of glandular tissue before surgery, how much slack the skin has, how the capsule forms, which plane the implant is placed in, and the state of the chest wall together with the dissection technique and fascia handling. It is a result built from five things overlapping, which is why the same product feels different from person to person. If you want a soft result, what to ask about is not the product name but the reasoning on those five.
Motiva and Mentor are strong on different axes
We are often asked which of the two is better. Answering requires first settling on a criterion, because a different criterion gives a different answer.
On capsular contracture, Motiva reports favourably. Studies looking at several implants side by side have observed it at the lower end. On history and accumulated clinical data, Mentor leads: having been used longer, its long-term observation record is thicker. Recent Mentor products have been made firmer than before, with improvements aimed at rippling and rupture.
Both carry US FDA approval, so either choice comes with a certain level of evidence behind it. So the order that makes sense is not asking which is better, but first settling what concerns you most given your own tissue, and then choosing whichever is strong against that concern.
How surface treatment connects to capsular contracture
Implants divide broadly by surface treatment: the smooth family and the textured family, which carries relief on its surface. A pooled report drawing several papers together concluded that surface treatment makes a meaningful difference to contracture rates.
A misunderstanding arises easily here, though. It should not be read as rougher is better. The class of implants given heavily textured surfaces to hold a teardrop shape fell sharply out of use worldwide over safety concerns, and we do not use them. What is used now is a different thing: far finer, micro and nano scale surface treatment.
So surface is not a rough-versus-smooth binary but a question of which generation and which treatment. What to confirm in consultation is what kind of surface it is and what observational data exists for that kind.
It is not only the product — the incision site enters into contracture too
Capsular contracture cannot be discussed through implant type alone. Studies comparing international database records by incision site show that where the incision is made also changes how often it occurs.
Three routes are in current use: periareolar, inframammary and axillary. Of these, contracture has been reported as occurring more often with the periareolar route. The reason lies in the structure of the areola: it has many sweat and oil glands, an environment where bacteria live well, so the risk of contamination during surgery is comparatively higher. Contracture is not unrelated to infection, so that difference carries through to the result.
This is why deciding the incision site in consultation is not only about where the scar lands. Breastfeeding plans, tissue condition and this contamination risk are weighed together. The choice that hides the scar best can be the unfavourable one on another axis.
The Motiva chip: is it worth having?
Motiva has a product line containing a chip with a unique serial number. With the chip, the model, size, manufacturer and lot number are registered electronically, so what went into your body can be confirmed later. It costs more than the version without.
The situations where that function earns its keep are specific: when the clinic that operated has closed and its records cannot be retrieved, when the implant has been damaged by something like a rupture, and when consultation or surgery has to continue at a different clinic. For patients travelling from abroad, that last case is especially real — once home, local doctors need to know what was placed.
Safety questions come up often too. The chip is sealed inside the implant, so it never contacts the body during surgery or afterwards, and it has no power source, no electrical signal and no heat output. The metal used has long been used in implantable medical devices, and it is smaller than a grain of rice, so it is not felt. It does not trigger airport security screening or building access systems. One thing to note is breast MRI: the chip can interfere with the signal and reduce reading accuracy, so tell the radiology team you have one when you have a breast MRI. Scans of unrelated areas such as the spine or brain are unaffected.
What actually happens before a product is chosen
To help you tell apart a consultation that ends in a product recommendation from one that does not, here is the order we work in.
We measure the body
We measure the base width the breast sits on, the distance between the nipples and the symmetry of the chest, and narrow the possible implant diameter range first. Talk of products starts after that range exists.
We assess the breast tissue
Blood work and breast ultrasound show the state of the tissue, and thickness and elasticity are judged by hand. That value simultaneously constrains the upper size limit and the choice of plane.
You try external sizers on
You wear candidates from within the possible range and see the impression for yourself. The size you imagined from photographs and the size held against your body are usually different.
Product, size and plane are settled together
These three cannot be decided separately. Change the plane and the size the body can carry changes; change the size and the shape that suits it changes. So they are matched together at the end.
An implant is not something you keep for life
Every manufacturer has a warranty policy, and there is material out there that quotes durations. The answer we give in the consultation is a little different. We do not set it by a number, as in replace it after so many years. Tissue and daily life differ from person to person, and even the same product has been through a different amount of time inside a different body.
The criterion is condition. Is the capsule thickening? Has the shape of the implant changed? Has pain or a change in appearance appeared? You cannot judge this by eye and hand alone; some changes only show on ultrasound. Which is why your schedule of regular check-ups is what actually determines when replacement is due.
For patients coming from abroad this matters especially, since flying to Korea every year is not realistic. So before you go home we set out what to check and at what intervals, and which examinations to ask for at a clinic where you live. Having the details of the product that was placed makes that check considerably easier.
Talk about products no longer in use is still circulating
Implants have moved through generations. Accounts of products that caused problems in the past, or that are no longer distributed at all, are still sitting on the internet, and some people arrive worried after reading them. Nothing on those pages is labelled as out of date.
The first thing we do at the consultation is work out with you which period that information belongs to. What can be used in Korea now are products cleared by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and each clinic carries a defined list. Anything outside that list has no direct bearing on the choice in front of you.
It is a different matter if you were operated on a long time ago. What state the product placed back then is in now does need checking. Having the product information is the best starting point; without it, we look at the condition on ultrasound first. Either way we judge by what is in your body now, not by the general accounts left on the internet.
The questions we are asked most about choosing an implant
- Which is better, Motiva or Mentor?
- Both are widely used, and they differ in gel character, feel and how they hold their shape. Rather than treating either as absolutely superior, it is more accurate to choose according to tissue condition and the result you want. The actual outcome depends not only on the product but on the surgical plan and the surgeon's experience.
- Are Korean-made implants inferior to imported ones?
- Country of manufacture is not a measure of quality. Domestic products also require MFDS approval before they can be used, and their finely subdivided sizing can actually be an advantage where detailed planning is needed, as with breasts that differ between sides. It is sounder to judge by fit to your conditions than by origin.
- Do implants last a lifetime? When are they replaced?
- There is no uniform replacement interval, but neither is leaving them untouched forever the assumption. It depends on their condition, so we check with regular ultrasound and make the call when a change is found. Skipping the check-ups is the real risk.
- I already have implants from another clinic and do not know what they are.
- That is not unusual. We check the condition by ultrasound first, and it becomes far more precise if you have the previous operative record or an implant card. Even with no records at all there is a range that examination can establish, and we go through it together at consultation.
- Does a more expensive implant mean a better one?
- Prices do differ by brand and line, and premium lines do exist. But an expensive product does not give everyone a better result. If it does not suit your tissue conditions, price is irrelevant to the disadvantage. Cost is a question for after the product is settled.
- Can an online consultation alone tell me which implant suits me?
- Front and side photographs plus basic information are enough for us to indicate a direction and a candidate range. But values like tissue thickness and breast base width have to be measured in person to be accurate, so treat the online stage as a way of narrowing the candidates.
Worth reading alongside this
Guides by Procedure
- Breast Augmentation Cost Guide — Quote Structure & Country Comparison
- Breast Revision Surgery — Capsular Contracture & Implant Replacement
- Breast Lift (Mastopexy) — Correcting Sagging Breasts
- Nipple & Areola Surgery — Inverted Nipples & Accessory Breasts
- Motiva Breast Augmentation
- Post-Surgery Breast Screening — Mammotome & Ultrasound
- Fat Transfer & Hybrid Breast Augmentation
Start by finding out which product suits you
Send front and side photographs along with the look you have in mind, and we will set out the candidates possible for your tissue conditions and the trade-offs of each. You do not need to arrive with a brand already chosen.