A ruptured saline breast implant is noticed almost immediately in the vast majority of cases. The saline is absorbed into the body without any harmful effects. Although having a ruptured saline implant is certainly an inconvenience, it is not a medical emergency to have it replaced. It certainly can be considered an urgent matter, because no woman wants to walk around with sever asymmetry that can be noticed. Another reason to proceed relatively quickly in replacing the implant is that the space around the implant tends to contract with time.
The longer the implant has been deflated, the more likely that a more extensive surgery will be needed to release the capsule that has shrunk around the implant. Having said that, we recently had a patient in our Santa Rosa plastic surgery office who waited an entire year before having her deflated implant replaced. She was "too busy" with life, work and kids to attend to herself. When we finally replaced her implants her surgery was uneventful and she was back at works within one week.
