Implant Breast

The November 17th 2006 Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the use of Mentor and Allergan (Inamed Corporation) silicone breast implants in the United States has raised many questions among women in Southern California, especially those in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.

Prospective Los Angeles breast augmentation patients want to know if they can now receive silicone gel-filled breast implants, and if so, what types of silicone breast implants are available? And what are the potential adverse effects or concerns? [...]

If you’re considering breast augmentation there are a few things to consider in terms of cost before you proceed with any breast enlargement. The costs of breast implant surgery and other breast plastic surgery are not always what they seem. There are many hidden costs that must be considered also.

For an initial breast augmentation surgery you should plan to pay at least $5000 to $6500 for saline breast implants and at least $6000 to $8000 for silicone breast implants. If you find doctors or surgeons who are charging less, be careful. It’s imperative that you make sure the surgeon is a board-certified plastic surgeon. There are doctors in other specialties such as dermatology who routinely perform these breast enhancement procedures.

These costs in the United States don’t vary too much except in New York City where they may be at least 50% more than the rest of the U.S.

When you’re quoted a price for breast implants make sure it includes the cost of the anesthesiologist, the board-certified plastic surgeons’ fee, the operating room, the hospital room and any other expenses. Make sure to ask about these fees because the surgeon’s fee may only be 65%-80% of the total cost of the surgery. [...]

Big breast implants are the subject of much controversy and debate in America. There are many reasons you may want to choose big breast implants, but you will want to consider seriously all of the possible ways they may impact your life.

For this discussion, we are referring to big breast implants as those implants that will increase your breast size to a D cup or larger. The most popular breast implant size increases a breast size to a C cup in breast augmentation. Women are, however, reportedly choosing D cups or larger in increasing numbers. [...]

The first documented attempt to augment (enlarge) the breast happened 119 years ago. For the first 68 years, breast augmentation was attempted by direct injection with materials, including paraffin, fat, and free silicone. These attempts led to disastrous consequences including infection, hard breast lumps, deformity, fat absorption, fat necrosis, and chronic inflammatory reactions. Removal was difficult, sometimes leading to measures as drastic as mastectomy. After the invention of the mammogram, these injections were found to create artifacts that made cancer screening more difficult. For these reasons, direct injections of the breast were abandoned by most plastic surgeons in the US. Free silicone injections into the breast for augmentation still continued in many other countries into the latter part of the 20th century, however.

Commercially-made breast implants were first available in the US in 1958, and over 200 different implant types and designs have been made since then. Experts estimate that 60% of these were silicone gel filled implants with the exception of 1992-2006, when the FDA moratorium was in place. During this time, saline-filled implants dominated the market. Dow Corning dominated the implant market for the first 30 years, but over 15 other companies made breast implants during the 1980s.

Although Congress gave the FDA authority to regulate medical devices in 1976, breast implants had been “grandfathered in,” and few of the products underwent rigorous testing in clinical trials prior to sale on the open market. Regulation of breast implants did not occur until 1991, when the FDA asked companies to submit premarket approval applications. As a result, the implant industry was caught blind sided when the FDA demanded comprehensive data with a 90-day deadline for completion of all safety studies. [...]

Breast augmentation is the most commonly performed cosmetic surgery in the U.S. and thus the most commonly performed breast plastic surgery. Today it is crucial to be fully aware of all the risks and complications that you could run into. In breast plastic surgery, breast implants are used for cosmetic reasons or to reconstruct the breast such as after a mastectomy, to fix hereditary malformations or as part of male-to-female gender reassignment surgical procedures.

Silicone gel implants have a silicone casing and are filled with viscous silicone gel. There have been many types of breast implants developed besides the two most common, saline filled and silicone gel filled, including polypropylene [...]