In some cosmetic surgeries, plastics like silicone are added to make the face or other parts of the body appear larger. But where does the plastic go? Does it go under the skin layers, between skin layers, or above them? Do they cover nerve endings (i.e. is there a sense of touch), do they restrict things like blood vessels? If somebody with an implant were to get injured near the area they had stuff injected in, would the plastic show up, or pour out, and would this injury heal itself? Is the consistency of it more liquid, solid, or kind of jello-like?
For the record, I am not interested in these cosmetic surgeries. I’ve always found surgeries that have no medical benefit to be very silly, as it’s an additional risk for no real benefit.
edit: I have been informed that plastic surgery does not necessarily mean actual plastics, and the term has existed before the material was a thing! And apparently, silicone is less common since it is difficult to clean up when it leaks, and saline (mildly salty water, similar in concentration to salt in the blood) is now used instead since it is easily absorbed into the body
FWIW, and I’m only mentioning this because of the phrasing of the question, plastic surgery isn’t named after ‘plastic’ (the noun), but for ‘plastic’ (the adjective). Plastic surgery was used as a term decades before plastic (the noun) was even invented!
But anyway, to answer your question, people tend not to use silicone in implants so much nowadays, preferring saline instead (as another person said). The main reason is that it is much less problematic if there is a rupture.
Leaking silicone is not immediately dangerous, but does need to be removed - which is difficult as it can squidge about under other tissues, causing mischief as it goes. Saline, by comparison, will just get absorbed by the body, usually harmlessly.
Ah okay that makes much more sense. Interesting, I did not know that!
Also it can also be plastic surgery by using metel. Have a buddy with a titanium plate in his forehead to build it back his skull after shrapnel blew out his eye socket. I was so impressed by their work. They saved his eye somewhat and you can barely tell he had work done other than it tans weird.
Ok that’s pretty cool :0
IIRC, cosmetics are typically bags of saline (salt water) placed under the muscle. I don’t believe the effect touch at all. With significant trauma, the bag would rupture, the saline would leak out and get absorbed in the surrounding tissue, and would need to be removed.
Oh, so they’re way down below the muscle mass? Did not know that.
And yikes, salt water leaking out into your inner bits sounds bad. (but presumably if you were to have such a large injury you would probably also be bleeding and such)edit: Oh wait, the salt water is low concentration. It’s not like seawater, ok, that makes much more sense.
We are basically bags of salt water already.
Which is why they litterally inject it into our veins all the time.
As the other person said, it would be fine. It’s 0.9% salt, which is the same concentration as your blood. It wouldn’t be bad
There’s also fat transplantation, which wouldn’t be affected by such injuries I don’t think
The word plastic in this case does not mean that actual plastic was inserted or injected. And it is not always cosmetic either. It only means that the shape or form was modified or reconstructed.
And it is not always cosmetic either
Which is why I specified cosmetic surgery.
The word plastic in this case does not mean that actual plastic was inserted or injected.
And that is new to me! That makes more sense, plastic surgery being named after plasticity since it’s changing the shape of something and having it stay like that. Plasticity is the converse of elasticity (the latter describing a material that goes back to its original shape when deformed). I have added an edit to the post now.
It depends on the implant.
Generally, they’ll be placed in a way that avoids interfering with nerves or blood supply. When it does happen, that’s a failure, not a normal part of the process.
Something like facial implants are usually solid (always, afaik, but I ain’t sith enough to deal in absolutes) rather than injected. You do have injections for cosmetics, but those tend to be into the lips almost exclusively.
The kind of injections that go into lips wouldn’t spill out after an injury. They use materials that aren’t liquid. Even the grotesque versions you see sometimes aren’t just bags of liquid under the skin.
Where you run into liquids, it’s going to be breasts and asses for the most part. The saline based ones will spill out if the “bag” they’re in ruptures. It’s just salty water, more or less, inside a sac.
Silicone implants are more of a gel, and thus wouldn’t “spill” in the same way, but if the container is ruptured can seep out into the body. It’s kinda like a thick jello in consistency, to use your own example.
But it is difficult to rupture the containers. They can be pierced, obviously, but enough force to just pop one is also enough force that you have other things to worry about.
Now, all of that assumes legal procedures. There are people out there that will essentially shoot caulk into their victims. And you’ll find some fucked up fakers that will do incorrect versions of otherwise safe-ish medical procedures, like transferring one’s fat from one place in the body to another.
And it’s important to note that there are procedures out there that do involve stuff that might match what you’re asking a bit closer, but they’re not exactly common
I think I understand now, dang, this is a pretty deep topic. Did not know that different parts of the body usually use different materials, but that makes sense I think
