can boxing/mma break implants

[iblameautistickids]

if u ever get into a fight or u do boxing or mma as a sport what would be the risk u fuck up ur implants or break them or something

@RealSurgerymax

 

[jaaba]

if u ever get into a fight or u do boxing or mma as a sport what would be the risk u fuck up ur implants or break them or something

@RealSurgerymax

I imagine so

 

[Aqualad]

MMA is cope if you are a 6’3 mogger obviously no one’s going to fuck with you

 

[RealSurgerymax]

It's a small risk just like breaking your bones is a risk. How about you dont get hit in the face without safety gear? If you want to take risk of concussions (and the long term consequences of that), facial fractures, and death then who cares. Fuck it.

 

[dumb]

competing in tournaments yes, sparring PROB not.

 

[iblameautistickids]

MMA is cope if you are a 6’3 mogger obviously no one’s going to fuck with you

I like to do it for fun

 

[iblameautistickids]

It's a small risk just like breaking your bones is a risk. How about you dont get hit in the face without safety gear? If you want to take risk of concussions (and the long term consequences of that), facial fractures, and death then who cares. Fuck it.

I don’t compete i just like to spar and stuff, but also was concerned if I ever get into a real fight what the risk of damage will be compared to if I never got implants

 

[toni_maxxx]

Even fall on your face can mess up the implants, that’s why it’s recommended to do bone plastics over implants. Yeah, if you love fighting, I would avoid implants

 

[greycel]

It's a small risk just like breaking your bones is a risk. How about you dont get hit in the face without safety gear? If you want to take risk of concussions (and the long term consequences of that), facial fractures, and death then who cares. Fuck it.

This is a different answer to what you said before, about the force that is needed to break implants would be equivalent to the force that would kill you

So when somebody gets saddled implants, they have to stop martial arts and be in fear if they ever get hit in the face it would blind them easily?

 

[greycel]

Even fall on your face can mess up the implants, that’s why it’s recommended to do bone plastics over implants. Yeah, if you love fighting, I would avoid implants

Where did you hear this?
@RealSurgerymax said otherwise from what I remember

 

[toni_maxxx]

This is a different answer to what you said before, about the force that is needed to break implants would be equivalent to the force that would kill you

So when somebody gets saddled implants, they have to stop martial arts and be in fear if they ever get hit in the face it would blind them easily?

That’s actually a very good point. Because besides implant failure, it can cause nerve or vessel damage (imagine the pain) due to movement, also think of screws getting broken and stuck in your skull.

 

[toni_maxxx]

Where did you hear this?
@RealSurgerymax said otherwise from what I remember

He said, that falling on your face is perfectly fine for the implants?

 

[greycel]

He said, that falling on your face is perfectly fine for the implants?

@RealSurgerymax said even beyond that.. he said the force needed to dislodge or break an implant will be so high, that it would've killed you if you didn't have it anyways

 

[toni_maxxx]

@RealSurgerymax said even beyond that.. he said the force needed to dislodge or break an implant will be so high, that it would've killed you if you didn't have it anyways

That depends on the quality of the implant and surgeon’s skill. Also the size and area. Obviously the implant itself should be hard to break, but does it justify the risks? If OP wants it so badly go ahead

 

[greycel]

That depends on the quality of the implant and surgeon’s skill. Also the size and area. Obviously the implant itself should be hard to break, but does it justify the risks? If OP wants it so badly go ahead

Assuming installation was done correctly, wouldn't it have to do with purely the type of implant?

What risks are you referring too? Use saddled infras as the example
Outside of installation and first 6 weeks, I can't think of any risks..

 

[toni_maxxx]

Assuming installation was done correctly

Well, that’s a great assumption, would you bet on that? Again, if everything is done good, the risks are much lower, but that IF is itself a good question

 

[lurking truecel]

Mma with implants is obv stupid, and you risk all kind of things

 

[greycel]

Mma with implants is obv stupid, and you risk all kind of things

Can you explain what these are?
Assuming these are custom PEEK and saddled infras

 

[betterlucknextime]

Yes still possible but unlikely

 

[kingofkings]

Yes. This guy had cheekbone implants which were dislodged from doing BJJ. He said they were held in place with titanium screws. Source - Reddit.

 

[iblameautistickids]

Yes. This guy had cheekbone implants which were dislodged from doing BJJ. He said they were held in place with titanium screws. Source - Reddit.

View attachment 3941669

Post the link

 

[lurking truecel]

Can you explain what these are?
Assuming these are custom PEEK and saddled infras

It wont heal if you get hit, it will break and you need to do surgery to remove. Or you hit them so they become loose and you become inflammed and need to remove. Or it come loose and micro movements make the bone resorption and you need to remove + bone is lost

 

[lurking truecel]

Yes. This guy had cheekbone implants which were dislodged from doing BJJ. He said they were held in place with titanium screws. Source - Reddit.

View attachment 3941669

Ehat is BJJ ?

 

[greycel]

It wont heal if you get hit

If you wait for a year before getting into it again?

Or you hit them so they become loose and you become inflammed

Is it not screwed in? And the force needed to dislodge it would kill you?

it come loose and micro movements make the bone resorption

Is this not an issue with it not being installed correctly? If custom it should fit current bone shape, so it won't have the capacity to become loose

 

[lurking truecel]

If you wait for a year before getting into it again?


Is it not screwed in? And the force needed to dislodge it would kill you?


Is this not an issue with it not being installed correctly? If custom it should fit current bone shape, so it won't have the capacity to become loose

implant is encapsulated if done right, but a slight force at the right place can make it loose. Some implants can become loose because you get bone loss with age around the implant.

 

[greycel]

implant is encapsulated if done right, but a slight force at the right place can make it loose. Some implants can become loose because you get bone loss with age around the implant.

Then are all implants designed to eventually fail?
So there's no permanent solution..

 

[lurking truecel]

Then are all implants designed to eventually fail?
So there's no permanent solution..

Be born chad

 

[greycel]

Yes. This guy had cheekbone implants which were dislodged from doing BJJ. He said they were held in place with titanium screws. Source - Reddit.

View attachment 3941669

Send the link

Be born chad

1. What an inframalar ( “saddle” ) implant actually is​

• Location & purpose. The saddle-style inframalar implant sits low on the zygomatic buttress, under the orbital rim, to restore width and fullness lost after a Le Fort/BSSO (“bimax”) or just for aesthetics.
• Materials. Most commonly solid silicone (Silastic), porous high-density polyethylene / Medpor®, patient-specific PEEK, or (less often) titanium mesh. Each behaves differently under load and integrates differently with bone and soft tissue — see table below.
• Fixation. A snug sub-periosteal pocket plus one-or-two micro-screws is current best practice; even surgeons who rely on a tight pocket alone will often add a screw specifically to reduce micromotion and later bone resorption (The PMFA Journal).
• Healing timeline. Soft-tissue swelling settles in 1-3 wks; the fibrous capsule that “shrink-wraps” the implant to bone matures between weeks 4-6; ossification into porous implants continues for months.

2. Baseline complication data (before we add MMA)​

Problem	How often in large adverse-event databases*	Typical time-frame	Management
Infection	46 % of FDA-reported events	1–12 wks post-op (mean ≈ 12 wks)	IV / oral antibiotics ± removal
Migration / malposition	23 %	days – >6 yrs (mean ≈ 1 yr)	Re-position or remove
Extrusion	10 %	months–years	Remove → wait 6–8 wks → replace
Swelling/hematoma	18 %	first 72 h	Drain/observe

*39 MAUDE reports, 2006-2016; 41 % involved the malar region (PMC). These are not true incidence figures (only the bad outcomes that someone reported), but they show what can go wrong.

3. How hard is MMA on the mid-face?​

• A 10-year review of 1,462 UFC bouts found facial injuries in 15.8 % of fighters; only 3.6 % were actual fractures (the rest lacerations) (PubMed).
• Case reports still appear: zygomatic-orbital fractures with optic-nerve compromise from a single punch or kick (PubMed). Force levels high enough to fracture native bone will obviously stress any implant sitting on that bone.

4. What happens when an implant is hit after it has fully healed?​

Material	Likeliest failure mode	Biomechanical notes
Silicone	Displacement > fracture (it is elastic and rarely cracks)	Absorbs impact well; the capsule provides most long-term fixation (Explore Plastic Surgery)
Porous PE (Medpor®)	Underlying bone fracture or difficult removal (because the implant is ingrown)	Less elastic; integrated tissue makes late removal harder
PEEK	Implant or screw fracture (more rigid)	Rigid “helmet” effect; absorbs less energy
Titanium mesh/plate	Screw pull-out or bone fracture at screw holes	Very strong but stress-shields bone

Key points from surgeon series and lab testing:

• • Once a capsule has formed, it takes a “much greater force” to tear it free than to fracture the bone beneath (Explore Plastic Surgery).
• • Mild trauma (e.g., being hit with a softball a few days post-op) usually only prolongs swelling and rarely displaces a properly fixed cheek implant (Williams Center).

5. Specific worries you raised​

Worry	What the evidence says
“It won’t heal if you get hit.”	During the first 6 weeks you should avoid any contact; UK after-care guidelines are explicit about avoiding contact sports until week 6 to prevent early displacement (Spire Healthcare). After that, soft-tissue healing is essentially complete.
“A punch will break the implant.”	Silicone almost never breaks; rigid PEEK can crack but only under high-energy trauma comparable to breaking bone. Published MMA fracture rates (~3–4 %) suggest truly catastrophic blows are uncommon, but not zero (PubMed).
“Micromotion → bone resorption → loosening.”	Bone remodelling under cheek implants is usually 1–2 mm over many years and seldom clinically significant (RealSelf.com). Screw-fixation + pocket sizing further reduce micromotion (The PMFA Journal).
“Implants are designed to fail.”	No. They’re designed to stay put, and when placed and fixed correctly most do. But they are permanent foreign bodies, so lifetime risk ≠ 0. FDA data show that when things do go wrong, removal is common (83 % in that adverse-event set) (PMC).

6. Putting it together – can you spar or fight?​

Yes, but you have to accept added risk.

1. Wait the full biological healing window. Six weeks is the minimum; many maxillofacial surgeons prefer 8–12 wks before full-contact grappling or striking.
2. Protect the site. A properly fitted head-guard and, during drilling sessions, reduced-power sparring are your best friends. Even without implants, the zygoma is the third most fractured facial bone in MMA.
3. Monitor changes. Any new asymmetry, persistent swelling, or numbness → immediate CT and review. An implant that has shifted usually needs early revision before infection or bone erosion sets in.
4. Know the long-term odds. Across all cosmetic cheek implants (sporting and non-sporting) most series quote 3–10 % revision/removal within the first 2 yrs, dominated by infection or mal-position. Repeated high-energy trauma will nudge that number upward – we just don’t yet have good statistics to say by how much.

7. Alternatives if you want zero foreign-body worries​

Option	Pros	Cons
Autologous fat grafting (repeatable)	No hard implant to displace	Variable resorption, may need touch-ups
Cadaveric / allograft dermal matrix	Softer, integrates	Costly, less projection
Autogenous bone graft (iliac crest or split calvarium)	Becomes living bone	Donor-site morbidity; shape control harder
Do nothing until after competitive career	Removes the variable entirely	May delay aesthetic goal

8. Bottom line​

Implants are not “designed to fail,” but they can fail if subjected to the kind of blunt force that already breaks bones in MMA.

• With modern materials, screw fixation, and a disciplined 6–12 week no-contact period, most patients return to full training without incident.
• The worst-case scenario (displacement, infection, bone loss requiring removal) is possible but uncommon, and its likelihood rises with the frequency and magnitude of facial blows.
• If absolutely avoiding a future revision is critical to you, graft-based or injectable solutions—or delaying augmentation—are safer. Otherwise, accept that MMA plus a cheek implant is a calculated trade-off: not a guarantee of failure, but not a guarantee of permanence either.

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This overview is based on the best peer-reviewed evidence and surgeon experience available up to July 2025; it is not a substitute for an in-person consultation with a board-certified maxillofacial or facial-plastic surgeon familiar with combat-sport athletes.

 

[Hexxon]

if u ever get into a fight or u do boxing or mma as a sport what would be the risk u fuck up ur implants or break them or something

@RealSurgerymax

looking strong mogs being strong ngl so just focus on looking strong