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  • How Often Should I Have My Breast Implants Changed?
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Dr. Larry Schlesinger: Hi, I'm Larry Schlesinger, and I'm a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, from Honolulu, Hawaii. And the Question of the Day is, "How long do breast implants last?" The answer is mostly factorial, as most things are. First of all, it depends if it's saline or silicone. If it's silicone, you have a good chance it'll last the rest of your life. If it's saline, you have a good chance that it'll deflate, sometime, in the not too distant future. Saline implants are actually more expensive than silicone overtime, because you have to have a second, and potentially, a third surgery, because they do deflate, and it's the valve that deflates. As far as silicone breast implants, the "rumor" or the "urban legend" out there, is they have to be changed every seven to ten years, and point in fact, that's not true.

The truth is, that when the FDA asked the manufactures how often, on average, you have to change breast implants, the answer was looking from '63 to '91, those years, "About every ten years." But if you dig deeper, and look today, with implants that don't leak, how often you have to change silicone breast implants, the answer would be "Don't fix it, if it's not broken." And the problems are leakage, silicone can't leak, because it's a semi-solid. Capsular contracture, and at the Breast Implant Center of Hawaii, we're all about helping you not have a capsular contracture. And finally, you've decided to go bigger. Those are the only three reasons to change them. So, fortunately, this happens very, very rarely, having any problems that will have to be redone, so you should be able to keep silicone breast augmentations, done by a well-trained, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in Hawaii, forever.

How Often Should I Have My Breast Implants Changed?

There is a myth that breast implants must be replaced every 10 years. In this video Dr. Larry Schlesinger explains where the 10-year myth came from and what the truth is.