Despite many medical advancements, women are still receiving faulty breast implants. Say it ain't so!

More than 300,000 women received industrial-grade silicone in their implants from French implant manufacturer, Poly Implant Prosthesis. These implants were not used in the U.S., but thousands of American women traveled abroad for implants and could be affected.

With the practice of 'plastic surgery tourism' sending many overseas for the same cosmetic procedures but at cheaper prices, many women affected are from the U.S. with a South American or European connection.

Internationally trained plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Hartog, is spreading the word to women who might have been patients.  So exactly what happened? 

French implant manufacturer Poly Implant Prosthesis,' founder Jean-Claude Mas is in jail as the company circulated these potentially harmful implants. Experts strongly recommend that these implants be removed or exchanged. And Dr. Hartog, agrees.

"This is an unfortunate incident that women need to be aware of," said the expert who is also director of The Bougainvillea Clinique.

"Women who received these implants should seek management for implant problems with capsular contracture or consider removing the implants and use a fat transfer as a replacement. Using their own fat for enhancement eliminates the fear of incorrect silicon use."

Internationally trained, Dr. Hartog specializes in breast reconstruction and enhancement but uses the virtually scarless, fat transfer procedure. 

"With AFT, fat is removed from the thighs or abdomen using gentle liposuction and inserted in small droplets into the breast," he explained.

A opposed to the potentially dangerous industrial-grade silicone implants, there is little risk of rejection when using AFT because it is a natural procedure, with the fat coming directly from the patient."

While no implants from PIP were used in the U.S., experts estimate that thousands of American women traveled abroad for these implants, causing the need to spread the word to women nationwide who might have these implants as a result of a procedure overseas.

This article was originally published Fashiontimes.com