What are expandable breast implants?
Expandable breast implants have a small removable port, which the plastic surgeon will not take out immediately after your breast augmentation surgery. As long as the port is still in place, your breast implants can either be made larger or smaller for up to 6 months after your breast enhancement surgery. One disadvantage of this type of breast implant is that another breast surgery is required to remove the port.
Expandable implants are saline breast implants that can be adjusted in size by adding more saline through a special valve. Originally, this type of implant was designed by Dr. Hilton Becker and the Mentor Corp. for use primarily in breast reconstructive patients, to gradually expand breast tissues after a mastectomy so that an implant could be inserted. The expandable implants started being used in cosmetic breast augmentation in the 1980s. Like standard breast implants, expandable implants comes in different sizes and the size can be adjusted during implantation by injecting sterile saline solution. You have to have a general idea of what size you would like to be, then build on this size. They come in textured and smooth models and can be placed either subglandularly or subpectorally. Most saline breast implants are made so that the surgeon can adjust the size at surgery, and that is the only time a change can be made for those implants. However, Mentor makes a line of saline implant
