Breast Implants - Breast Enhancement

Development of breasts in a girl begins around the age of 11 to 15 when she also begins to menstruate and is normally complete by the age of 18. The size of the breast depends upon the body construction, the amount of fat in the body, the weight of the person and heredity. Though advertisements on breast increasing pills or exercises are cited, they do not; in most cases make any difference to the size unless the fat content is increased. Breasts increase in size during pregnancy and go back to normal after the delivery. They increase during excitement or after having continued sexual relations with a man.

Most women are not happy about the size and the shape of their breasts. They would like to increase the size and modify the shape. They go in for plastic surgery of the breasts. Breast implants are also called breast augmentation, breast enlargement, mammoplasty enlargement, augmentation mammoplasty or in simple local slang, boob jobs. Legally a doctor is not allowed to perform this procedure on a girl below the age of eighteen. She has to be a adult before she can undertake this operation.

Most breast implants are done by young girls or newly married women for cosmetic reasons. The size and contour changes and gives the patient a more confident feeling and increases her self-esteem. Some go in for breast implants to cover up another operation such as mastectomy where the breast may have been removed on medical grounds. Or it may be done as a revision of an earlier procedure. It may even be done in cases where the breasts have failed to develop in a girl for unknown reasons.

In 2006 there were about 329,000 breast implants done in the US alone. Breast implants have been used since 1895. Various methods and techniques and different implants have been used. Today, two types of implants are used- the saline filled implant and the silicone gel implant. Incisions are made under the breast (the resultant scar is covered by the breast) or through the nipples or from a cut from the armpit or even from the abdomen or navel. The implant is inserted and the skin stitched back. The procedure takes about an hour or two. The breasts then appear good and generally the patients are satisfied. Complications may be there but they in most case are not very serious ones.