Follow the Money: Who Actually Profits From Implant Fear-Mongering

I keep getting the same comment, usually some version of "you just want to keep women scared of explanting so you can keep selling implants." And it tells me the person didn't actually watch the video, because I addressed this directly. So let's talk about it head-on, because the financial incentives here are the exact opposite of what people assume.

This follows directly from my breakdown of the mold-in-saline-implants claims, where I explained why that viral fear is not supported by the evidence. Now let's talk about who benefits from spreading it.

Here's the part that flips the whole accusation on its head:

So if I were purely chasing money, the financially smart move would be to scare you out of your implants, not to reassure you about them. The incentive runs the other way from what the commenters claim. The people telling you to explant are the ones in the more lucrative line of work, not me.

There's a whole genre of so-called "explant experts" out there, and I'll say plainly: there's no such thing. These are the people who fear-monger with claims like "we frequently find mold in implants" or "you have to have your implants removed a very specific way" (the total-capsule-removal-because-of-toxins myth I've debunked before).

Now look at how they operate financially:

• I don't know a single one who takes insurance, even though a portion of these procedures is often covered by insurance. (It really can be, which makes the cash-only model a choice, not a necessity.)
• They charge patients cash, in large amounts.

Let me give you a real example. There was one here in Southern California who claimed he did 450 to 500 explants a year, charging on average $25,000 to $35,000 per explant. Do that math:

• 450 to 500 procedures a year
• At $25K to $35K each, cash

That is an enormous amount of money, on the order of eight figures a year. So when you ask who has a financial motive in this conversation, it is not the surgeons like me placing implants. It's the people built an entire cash business on removing them.

Let's play devil's advocate and grant the claim for a second. Let's say some of these explant experts really are seeing mold around implants all the time. Let's pretend they have documented mold infections (they don't, but let's pretend).

Here's the question that exposes the whole thing: what would the right thing to do be?

If you are genuinely seeing large numbers of women with a serious health concern that differs from the published literature, that is a reportable finding. The ethical, scientific, honest move would be to tell the world, report it to the FDA, document it, publish it, warn physicians, and change the standard of care. That's how real safety signals get acted on.

But that's not what they do. Instead, they:

• Post it on social media
• Aim it at vulnerable women
• Use it to scare people out of implants and into a cash procedure

If the concern were real and they cared about patient safety, the reporting channels exist and they'd use them. Choosing the fear-mongering social-media route instead, while running a multi-million-dollar cash business, tells you everything you need to know about the motive. This is the same self-promotion-through-fear pattern I've called out before, and the same dynamic I wrote about in my open letter to BII survivors being pushed toward aggressive surgery.

When someone tells you a doctor is fear-mongering for profit, follow the money:

• Placing implants pays 2 to 3 times less than removing them. The lucrative side of this is explant, not augmentation.
• The "explant experts" typically won't take insurance (even though a portion is often covered), charge large cash sums, and in at least one case ran a business doing 450 to 500 explants a year at $25K to $35K each.
• If they truly had documented mold infections that contradict the literature, the honest move would be to report it, not post fear-bait at vulnerable women on social media.

And one last thought I'll leave you with: if objective data cannot change your opinions, then your opinions are not based on fact. They're not science, they're a religion. I'll keep showing you the evidence. What you do with it is up to you, but at least know who actually has the financial incentive in this conversation. (If you are considering explant for a legitimate reason, here's how I'd pick a surgeon.)