Sometimes knowing where we have come from in the past helps us appreciate where we are today. The history of breast augmentation shows that breast implants have come a long way from their beginnings. A little background gives understanding to how revolutionary the IDEAL IMPLANT® Structured Breast Implant is for women today.

First Attempts with Augmentations

In 1890, Austrian doctor Dr. Robert Gersuny started the first breast augmentations by injecting his patients with paraffin wax. The results were not so pretty, as his patients experienced infections and lumps in their breasts. Then in 1895, Doctor Vincenz Czerny, also from Austria, experimented with the first implant idea by using a benign tumor from the back of his patient and placing it in the breast where another tumor in the woman had been removed! From this precarious start, through the turn of the century until the 1950’s, surgeons experimented with a variety of breast implant materials.  These materials included fat from the patient, glass balls, wool, sponges, ivory, even ox cartilage. Although proven safety was lacking, women still seemed willing to undergo pain, injection needles, and experiments to enlarge their bust size or fix asymmetrical breasts.

Breast Implants Change Everything

A new idea for breast implants came to a young doctor when he went to get a bag of blood from the hospital’s blood bank. Blood that had been stored in glass jars was now being held in plastic bags, and he noticed how it felt similar to the tissue of a woman’s breast. A team of doctors lead by Dr. Thomas Cronin developed the first silicone gel-filled breast implants in 1961, and the design of these implants stayed relatively unchanged over the next 30 years. However, in the 80’s, women became increasingly concerned about the safety of silicone gel-filled implants, so implants filled with saline began to grow in popularity, even though they had a less-natural feel.

The Best of Both Worlds

For decades, women wanting breast implants could choose saline filled implants that often rippled and felt unnatural, or they could choose silicone gel filled implants and worry about the risks of a silent rupture. Faced with this dilemma, a plastic surgeon designed breast implants that gave women the natural feel of silicone gel, yet with the safety of saline. The resulting IDEAL IMPLANT is the next level of technology offering women a structured saline filled implant that feels natural without the worry of silent rupture that occurs with silicone gel implants.

Find a board certified plastic surgeon in your area who can tell you more about breast augmentation cost, procedure, and implant choices. With the perfect breast implants, you can start to make your own history. Learn more today.