By Carey Hamilton
The Salt Lake Tribune

More Teens Opt for Breast Implants

Breast Enlargement: Plastic surgeons say 18 is the earliest age girls should consider the procedure's rewards - and risks

Women who get breast implants should not make the decision lightly, experts caution. Often additional surgery is necessary within five to 10 years, and women may experience breast pain, breast hardness and numbness in the nipple area after surgery.

Breast implants will not last a lifetime, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Because of rupture or other complications, most women will need to have the implants removed and likely will need additional doctor visits, operations or removals because of one or more complications.

Women who have implants removed may experience dimpling, puckering, wrinkling, breast tissue loss or other undesirable changes.

Health insurance typically doesn't pay for the treatment or corrective surgeries for problems that may arise.

Breast implants also interfere with mammography, obscuring 22 to 83 percent of breast tissue, according to a study by the Food and Drug Administration. FDA researchers found other testing problems, including implants crushed by mammographic compression, pain during mammography attributed to the implants, inability to perform mammography because of fear of implant rupture and delayed detection of cancer attributed to the breast implants.

The FDA recommends women who already have breast implants should inform the mammography center that they have implants when they make an appointment and remind the mammography technician that they have breast implants before their exam.

Lauren Florence, a Salt Lake City plastic surgeon, does not perform breast augmentations because of the potential mammography problems.

"There's a big white spot on the mammogram, and some portion of the breast is not visible," said Florence, who is a breast cancer survivor. "It makes the breast harder to examine, and I don't want to be part and parcel of it."

But Barnett said women who give the cosmetic operation serious thought are almost always pleased with their decision.

Breast augmentation "can give some women a boost in confidence as they enter college or the workplace," he said.

And he hasn't seen the trend of parents buying their daughters new breasts proliferate in Utah.

"Many of the parents aren't like that here," he said. "But it is more common elsewhere."