Plastic Surgeons Upset at Silicone Implant Allegations from Finland
The Health Board has confirmed that clinics in Tallinn have used breast implants that may be harmful to the health, but top clinics maintain that the problem is restricted to a few seedier enterprises.
Department head Andrei Knuut said PIP, poly-implant prosthetics from France - which are considered to run health risks - have been used in Estonia.
The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat had originally reported the story after a Finnish citizen received a PIP implant instead of M implants at a clinic in Tallinn
Precise statistics are unavailable for Estonia, but in France, about 30,000 women have received such implants; in Sweden, 2,500. They are not officially sold in Finland.
Such implants are filled with cheaper silicone and can start to leak relatively easily.
Cosmetic surgeon Peep Pree told Õhtuleht that Estonian clinics are aware of the prohibited nature of the PIP implants. Pree said "one or two" clinics in Estonia used PIP products, but maintained that no registered and licensed plastic surgeon had implanted them.
"Some Finnish surgeon comes and says Estonians are crooks or unprofessional. I have nothing to say to this other than it's a case of market competition. It's another way to blacken the reputation of Estonian plastic surgery," says Pree, who says the problem of dodgy clinics exists in Finland as well.
Kristopher Rikken