I recently had Saline Breast Implants, and I now wish I would have gone bigger than what I did. Can you fill saline implants without changing them?
Once the saline implants are in, and you have healed from surgery, there is no way to fill them unless you have another surgery.
There is a kind of saline implant which does allow the surgeon to fill it more after surgery. However, these implants have a port which sits on the side of the chest under the skin. It is filled up by injecting the port through the skin. These implants are rarely used.
Saline implants are designed to be optimally full at a certain volume. There is a certain amount of "wiggle room" allowed by the manufacturer. However, that discretionary amount is usually very small. So it is usually better to change out the implant entirely. Overfilled implants can be more prone to rupturing, plus they may lose their definition if they are overinflated.
Early after surgery, many patients go through phases where they feel their implants are too small. Hopefully you and the doctor measured carefullly before the surgery and decided on the largest reasonable size based on your measurements.
When selecting implant sizes, I remind my patients that larger implants are more visible, palpable, ripple more, predispose to redo surgery faster, droop faster, and cause more destruction to normal tissues when they are placed (pectoralis fiber detachment) and long-term with thinning of the tissues.
So sometimes, be careful what you wish for.
When you choose a saline implant the volume of saline permitted is pre-determined within a certain range. For example, a 300cc. implant would allow 300-325 or 330ccs. of saline. Under- or over-filling below or beyond these limits is discouraged because it might lead to increased risk of leakage/rupture or invalidation of your warranty. More practically, it is like a balloon filled to capacity: adding more saline/air doesn't make the implant/balloon that much larger. It only makes it firmer.
In addition, you and your surgeon have to analyze what you mean by larger as implants with different dimensions (i.e. width and projection) might give you more of what you want. The volume is a function of model of implant, width and projection. It is possible that you might need a different implant but that implant could have a lower volume. If you do stay with the same model and want an increase in size, I generally suggest that that size change should be at least two sizes since the difference between one size and the immediately adjacent next size smaller or larger is probably not that significant to warrant another operation.
Yes, you can add more saline to your current implants; however, it is generally not advised. First of all, each saline implant has a certain fill range that is recommended for each sized implant. If you exceed the recommended volume by too much it will increase your chances for scalloping along the edges and will make your implant and breast much harder.
Additionally, you may void your warranty on your implants as you are potentially damaging the one-way valve.
Realize, surgery is not without potential risk, so consider your options seriously. Another thing to consider is which technique was used to place your implant. If it was placed by the periareolar or inframammary approach, one could fill it up more, but if the implant was placed via the transaxillary (underarm) or transumbilical approach, you will damage the implant.
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