Curly Blonde Girl Shows Off Her Silicone Breast Implants On The Couch At Home

In the 1970s, the first technological development, a thinner device-shell and a thinner, low-cohesion silicone-gel filler, improved the functionality and verisimilitude (size, look, and feel) of the silicone breast implant. Yet, in clinical practice, the second-generation proved fragile, and suffered greater incidences of shell rupture, and of “silicone gel bleed” (filler leakage through an intact shell). The consequent, increased incidence-rates of medical complications (e.g. capsular contracture) precipitated U.S. government faulty-product class action-lawsuits against the Dow Corning Corporation, and other manufacturers of prosthetic breast prostheses.
The second technological development was a polyurethane foam coating for the implant shell; it reduced the incidence of capsular contracture by causing an inflammatory reaction that impeded the formation of a capsule of fibrous collagen tissue around the breast implant. Nevertheless, the medical use of polyurethane-coated breast implants was briefly discontinued because of the potential health-risk posed by 2,4-toluenediamine (TDA), a carcinogenic by-product of the chemical breakdown of the implant’s polyurethane foam coating. After reviewing the medical data, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that TDA-induced breast cancer was an infinitesimal health-risk to women with breast implants, and did not justify legally requiring physicians to explain the matter to their patients. In the event, polyurethane-coated breast implants remain in plastic surgical practice in Europe and in South America; in the U.S., no breast implant manufacturer has sought the FDA’s approval for American medical sale.
The third technological development was the double lumen breast-implant, a double-cavity device composed of a silicone-implant within a saline-implant. The two-fold, technical goal was: (i) the cosmetic benefits of silicone-gel (the inner lumen) enclosed in saline solution (the outer lumen); (ii) a breast-implant device the volume of which is post-operatively adjustable. Nevertheless, the more complex design of the double-lumen breast-implant suffered a device-failure rate greater than that of single-lumen breast implants. The contemporary versions of Second generation devices, presented in 1984, are the “Becker Expandable” models of breast implant device, used primarily for breast reconstruction.