Popular Graduation Gift: Breast Implants

The hot new reward for graduating high school girls is bigger breasts. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), the number of breast enhancement surgeries for 18-year-olds has jumped from 3,872 in 2002 to 11,326 in 2003. That's a 292% increase in one year. The procedure can run about $3,500 to $7,000. But that may not be the only cost. The potential for implant failure later on can cost more than money.

The FDA has just released a new consumer handbook on implants, which includes graphic photos of what can go wrong. However, one must understand that the FDA in this case is going to err on the side of caution having had so much controversy surrounding this topic.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) completed its independent review of past and ongoing scientific research of silicone [both saline-filled and silicone-gel filled] breast implant safety in June 1999

Below are some of the major findings from the IOM report

~ Local complications are the primary safety
    issue with breast implants because they
    are frequent enough to be a concern.

~ Local complications accumulate over the
    lifetime of the implant, and they have not been
    well studied.

~ Information on local complications is crucial
    for women deciding whether or not they want
    breast implants.

~ Breast implants will not last a lifetime. Either
    because of rupture or other complications, you
    will likely need to have the implants removed.

~ You are likely to need additional doctor visits
    and reoperations because of one or more
    complications over the course of your life.

~ You are likely to have the implants removed, with or without replacement,
    because of one or more complications over the course of your life.

~ Many of the changes to your breast following implantation may be cosmetically
    undesirable, as well as irreversible (cannot be undone).

~ If you later choose to have your implants removed, you may experience
    unacceptable dimpling, puckering, wrinkling, loss of breast tissue, or
    other undesirable cosmetic changes of the breast.

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