Can I Get Saline Implants Deflated a Little if I Think They're Too Big?

The short answer to your question is yes, it is possible to do so. However, as the other doctors have mentioned, this is not always a good idea. Saline implants have an ideal or recommended fill volume and if you just remove fluid from them you will increase your risk of rippling. This in turn may increase your risk of implant rupture due to fold faults on the implant. Your best option is to replace your current implants with smaller implants. This unfortunately increases your costs.

Dear Parisi32 in Norfolk:

It may be possible to get your saline breast implants deflated a little if you think they are too big. It depends on your current fill volume, the fill range of your current implants and the amount of volume reduction you are looking for. Small adjustments, about 10% implant volume reduction, are possible if the implant is starting out filled to it's maximum allowed volume, and the volume is reduced to the lowest allowed volume. This will maintain your warranty and minimize the risk of implant failure. It should be performed under sterile technique, and personally, I only perform direct manipulation of breast implants in an accredited surgical facility so the sterility of the implant is maintained.

If larger reduction is needed, the implants would need to be replaced with new, smaller breast implants. Decreasing the fill volume below the manufacturers recommended minimum will increase the risk of deflation in the future, and technically violates your warranty should any problems develop in the future.

The saline implants have a recommended fill volume range. This is generally about 30 cc. if your surgeon filled the implants to their maximum volume a minor procedure can be done to remove the excess and return to the recommended minimal fill volume.

This may or may not be enough of a reduction for you. I suggest you return to your surgeon to determine if the reduction in volume is an option but also to help you determine if this small volume change is enough to achieve your goal.

Good luck and I hope this was helpful.

This is a bad idea on several fronts. Deflating an implant slightly will cause wrinkles in the implant, which may cause the implant to deflate at a later date. Plus if you have minimal breast tissue, you can see the wrinkles. Deflating implants requires an operation and voids the implant warrantee. To reduce the size will require a replacement of the present implant. If they are close to a satisfactory size, leave them alone and be happy.  Good luck.

Your implants can be deflated a bit, but they may ripple and would require surgery to perform this procedure.  Usually it is best to place a size appropriate new implant back in rahter than deflating the ones you have.

If you think your implants are too big, you can open up the incision and take some of the saline out.  This will make them the size you want, but you may have a problem with rippling - where you can see or feel the folds in the implant, usually on the side and on the bottom - if it is not "overfilled" with fluid.

Hi Parisi32,

Your surgeon can certainly go in through the old incision and insert the fill tube and withdraw some saline.  However, I agree with the below comments that every implant is usually filled to an optimal volume and volumes below this will result in rippling.  I would just change to the size implant you prefer.  The surgeon has to make an incision anyway and it is fairly easy to exchange saline implants.

Tracy M. Pfeifer, MD, MS

Saline breast implants do have a fill range, usually 30 to 50cc depending on the size of the implant. If your implants are filled to the top of the range it is conceivable that the volume can be reduced  to the low end of the range, however practically, if you feel that your implants are too big, the change would be a very small one.  The better solution would be replacement of the implants with a size that suits you better.

Best of luck,

peterejohnsonmd

If you have saline implants they can be inflated from the minimum amount recommended by the manufacturer to the max amount they recommend without affecting the warranty.  To deflate implants you would need to have a minor surgical procedure and you could deflate them some if they were overinflated to the max recommended or more.  If you deflate more than that (below the minimum recommended volume you stand a greater chance of rippling and rupture due to fracture flaw.  You may want to consider smaller implants.  Good luck, Dr. Schuster from Boca Raton.

The size of the implant is related to the dimensions and the volume but each implant has a recommended fill volume.This means that if it is too large, you probably need to change the implant. Deflating the implant might change the sizea minimal amount since removing enough volume to decrease the  size significantly will probably cause the volume to fall below the recommended minimun fill volume. What deflating the saline implant with  the recommended fill volume range does is perhaps make it less firm. Further deflation might increase ripples and might increase risk of spontaneous deflation due to fold failure.

 

Dr. Robin T. W. Yuan, M.D.