Breast augmentation (augmentation mammaplasty) is a procedure in which implants are inserted into the breasts to make them larger. It is the most common cosmetic surgical procedure for women in Australia.
Doctors began using various things to enlarge breasts more than a hundred years ago including paraffin, fat transferred from elsewhere in the body, liquid silicone, sponges, even glass balls. All early attempts were unsuccessful and the results often catastrophic. The first actual implants were saline bags which came on the market in the 1960s but they had an unacceptable rupture rate which caused the implants to deflate.
