Breast Implants Come With Several Options

When it comes to breast implants your options are as varied as the women who undergo the procedure itself. Even though there are only two options when it comes to the type of breast implant including saline or gel, there are plenty of options when it comes to placement, size and texture that can affect your overall appearance and your satisfaction level with the implants and make your breast augmentation surgery different from the next woman's.

There has always been a lot of debate about saline verses gel breast implants and that debate was fueled by claims that the gel implants could leak undetected in a woman's body and cause auto immune diseases such as lupus or arthritis. The FDA banned the use of gel breast implants in 1992 while the claims were investigated and the ban wasn't lifted until 2006 when the FDA finally concluded that women who had gel implants were not any more likely than women who had no implants to develop these disorders and there was no connection.

However the FDA ban on gel implants came with the requirement that women who receive them also undergo annual monitoring to ensure that there are no silent leaks. The breast implant itself is a pretty sturdy solid silicone shell regardless of what it is filled with but when saline leaks it is obvious as one breast will dramatically shrink. On the other hand when gel leaks it has the consistency of thick molasses and the leak can go on undetected for quite a while. The fear during the banned era of gel implants was that the gel was leaking into the body and causing health problems. Since saline is naturally occurring product in the body, even if the leaks were not detected quickly the potential health risk was nonexistent.

Today the FDA acknowledges that the gel can not cause any of the disorders claimed but it won't reabsorb into the body either so it is necessary to know if it is leaking in order to surgically remove the defective implant and get the gel which is a foreign body material out of your body where it can free flow around.

What all of this means to you if you choose gel implants is you will have to undergo annual MRI screenings to look for leaks and catch them early. This is an expense that most insurance plans won't pay for and it can cost thousands of dollars so it is an expensive addition that you will need to budget for.
If you are not prepared to follow up with yearly MRI's it may be a better option to explore the pros of saline implants and see if the saline breast implant is a better option for you. Saline does not require any special follow up care like gel breast implants do and they can be a great option for women who don't want to deal with yearly follow up exams.