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  • Breast Implants: Saline or Silicone?
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For cosmetic augmentation, there are two choices. There are saline implants and silicone gel implants. The pros of saline implants are they are a little bit expensive. When they do, rupture over time because no implant is gonna last forever. You do know it pretty quickly because you start shrinking in size over maybe several days or a couple of weeks. In my opinion, they don't feel quite as natural as a silicone gel implant. They don't last as long. For some younger women up to about 22 years of age, they can only have the saline implants.

The advantages of the gels are they do feel a little more natural and they last maybe an extra 10 years or so. They're a little bit more expensive, but because they last longer probably over time, that cost-benefit ratio favors the gel implants. They are a little harder to know if it's time to replace the implants because they really stay put. They usually don't change how they look or change how they feel very much. We may find some difference on mammogram or maybe some difference to the patient that they notice that there's something that's changed. At that point, I advise my patients to come in, let me do a breast exam and then do a workup on those implants.

Breast Implants: Saline or Silicone?

Dr. Susan Vasko explains the pros and cons to both saline and silicone breast implants.