I am often asked, "What is the right age or best age to get breast implants?" Not being one to be speechless very often - this one will always get me.
I believe you can make a case for being in your young, mid twenties, sick of looking and feeling like a boy and wanting to have nice feminine curves to enjoy while you are young. But the downside is that you still have life events to go through - like having babies - which may change your breasts and cause you to need another operation. And too, the younger you get them, the longer the breast implant needs to last and since no device lasts forever, the more chance of reopertation. But if you have read our book, then you know, that making really good, smart decisions preop can lengthen the life time of your result.
The other case is for women who have had their families. They have seen a change in their breasts that they cannot change thorugh diet and exercise and their own habits so having surgery to alter the size of their breasts becomes very reasonable. And getting them after having babies and later in life, you reduce variables that might cause you to need another operation in the future.
I guess the old saying "to each his or her own" really applies here as we all have different goals and expectations. As long as you make educated decisions and go into this life changing operation with your eyes wide open and with reasonable expectations then you have done your due diligence and I believe you will be more satisfied with your result.
The one thing that is happening now that I cannot be speechless about is the "off lable" use of silicone breast implants. I think it is important to remind potential patients that the legal age to recieve silicone breast implants in the United States is now 22 years old. This is not our rule or a national plastic surgery assoication rule - this is law. And to use a silicone implant on a patient under the age of 22 is illegal. Now I am hearing that some plastic surgeons are using them on young, under aged patients under the guise that they are using the product (the silicone implant) "off lable" and consenting patients to that and therefore justifying in their own minds that its ok to use silicone breast implants on women under the age of 22 years old. This one makes me scratch my head on two accounts ~ why are we permanently changing such a young body with breast implants to begin with? and if they (the plastic or cosmetic surgeon) will cheat on a subject as important as this, what else will they do? Just makes me very uncomfortable and it should make patients really ask hard questions of themselves and the plastic or cosmetic surgeon they are thinking about using.
As you have probably heard us say before, Life is about choices....you are responsible. Integrity is a very important aspect of a responsible choice!