Breast augmentation surgery: expect 3 trips to the operating table

Breast implants, like cars and toaster overs, have a planned obsolesence. Implants are not designed to last forever. Most breast implants require replacement three times over a lifetime.

A story in Elle Magazine investigates the truth about how long breast implants really last, and what happens to them over time. In the Elle article, Atlanta plastic surgeon Foad Nahai, MD says he tells his patients, "Please understand this is not your last pair."

Las Vegas surgeon Samir Pancholi has been helping patients with failed breast implants on a near daily basis for the last two years at his practice. Having performed over 100 deflation repairs; he’s seen them spontaneously rupture as early as one year out. So what do these patients seem to have in common? 

They’re former patients of his now-retired doctor, they mostly had textured saline implants, and the implants were usually filled on the lower side of the normal range. Was it the doctor or was it the implant? Both the doctor and the manufacturer of the implants say they don’t know.

A 2004 FDA report estimates that you can only blame the implants ten percent of the time, another reason to be extra cautious about choosing a well-trained surgeon. Other side effects like capsular contracture are quite common and often can't be predicted.

5 causes of breast implant deflation

1. Trauma. A Houston plastic surgery nurse had one of the first TUBA breast augmentations while working in the office of the inventor of TUBA, Dr. Gerald Johnson. An active athlete, she threw a football across the pool one day and an hour later her DD was matched by a deflated small C falling out of her swimsuit.
 
2. Capsular contracture.
 
3. Age of implants. Over time, the chance of deflation goes up.

4. Mammograms - be careful! This is why they make you sign a waiver.

5. Implant defect - it's rare but it can happen.

Get the warranty on your breast implants, it's worth it on the chance that something happens to yours. Just like a Ford pickup, they might be smokin' hot when you get them, but after a while they will probably need some repair.

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