Will I Have to Replace My Breast Implants?

    TAMPA, FL, November 11, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Breast implants are ideally designed to be lifetime devices, but the truth is that if you have breast implants they will some day need to be replaced. However, it is no longer recommended that you regularly replace your breast implants every ten years. Breast augmentation can give great results for ten or fifteen years or more, and when you decide that it is time to replace them it may not be because of the breast implants themselves, but because your breast tissue has changed.

Reasons to Replace Breast Implants

Women need to count on having their breast implants removed at some point. They may be replaced with other breast implants or not. Reasons why breast implants are replaced include:

- Desire a different size/style
- Breast implant failure (rupture)
- Local complications
- Poor cosmetic results
- Changes in the results over time

Most of the time, women opt to have their breast implants replaced because if they do not, their breasts look empty and deflated.

Replacing Breast Implants for a Different Style or Size

One reason why women voluntarily replace their breast implants is that they desire a different style or size. Most women want to change their style because they got saline breast implants when silicone breast implants were not available and they desire the more natural appearance and feel of silicone.

Most women replacing their breast implants for size do so to acquire larger breast implants.

Breast Implant Failure

Breast implants are improving all the time, but failure is still a possibility. The mean age of silicone breast implants at the time of rupture is 13 years according to a 1998 study. The average age at which breast implants began to leak was 10.1 years. However, in the study nearly half of silicone breast implants remain intact for 15 years and some remain intact for 20 years or more. In a more recent study, only about 10% of breast implants ruptured within the first ten years after surgery.

When saline breast implants fail, they will visibly deflate, but silicone gel breast implants tend to have what is known as "silent rupture," where the implant is broken but the implant continues to look and feel normal. Regular MRIs are recommended to detect silicone gel breast implant failure.

Local Complications

Unfortunately, local complications affect a significant portion of breast implant recipients. The most common local complication that required the replacement of breast implants is capsular contracture, when the scar tissue around the breast implant squeezes the implant, causing a painful deformity of the augmented breast. This may affect up to 20% of breast augmentation patients. Infection is also a local complication that may require the replacement of breast implants.

Poor Cosmetic Result

Not all women get the results they desire from breast implants. In addition to not having the size or style of breast implant they desire, significant asymmetry affects about 5% of breast implant recipients.

Changes in Results over Time

Like natural breasts, augmented breasts are subject to the force of gravity and are likely to begin to sag over time. How long a woman will be happy with her breast augmentation results depends on a number of factors, including her age at the time of her breast augmentation, the size of breast implants used, and whether she had submuscular or subglandular placement of breast implants.

Expectations for Breast Implant Replacement

If you are considering breast augmentation, remember that this is not a one-time operation and that women who have breast surgery once will have to have at least one other surgery and is likely to have several over her lifetime. Statistics show that about 20% of women will have their implants removed with or without replacement in the first 10 years. Few women go more than 15 years without removing or replacing their breast implants. This means that if you are a 20-year old women considering breast augmentation, you should count on having at least two other surgeries by the time you are 50, and you may have many more.

If you have more questions about breast augmentation, you can find more information on the website of Tampa plastic surgeon Dr. Antonio J. Gayoso at http://gayosoplasticsurgery.com.

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