A breast implant can hide abnormal tissue or lesions, making detecting cancerous breast tissue more difficult. Producing accurate, high-quality images requires tightly squeezing the breasts, which may cause a rupture or leak with your implants. Also, scarring around the implant may look like cancerous tissue, making your mammogram more challenging to interpret.
If you have implants and require a routine breast cancer screening, inform the technician when you schedule the procedure what type of implants are present and whether they are in front of or behind the chest muscle. You may need more views taken than during a routine screening. In some cases, MRI scans might be necessary to produce a clear image.