A generation of UK women had augmentation in the 2000s boom — sold, often, on the comfortable phrase "they last a lifetime." Twenty-plus years later, that phrase deserves an honest audit.
No manufacturer ever warranted a lifetime. Realistic working life for that era's devices: 10–20 years, with rupture and contracture risk rising steadily with age. Modern implants improved the curve; nothing flattened it. An implant from 2004 is now an old device by every engineering and clinical standard — whatever it was called in the brochure.
Examination plus imaging — ultrasound as the workhorse, MRI where rupture needs confirming. From the UK, the practical sequence: send photos and your implant history (or what fragments of it survive) for an initial read; imaging can be arranged locally or during an Istanbul assessment visit. You are not obliged to act on the findings — but you're far better off owning them.
Discovered problems dictate their own schedule; anticipated ones let you choose yours. Exchange at 20 years on your terms — surgeon verified, date convenient, anatomy current — beats the same operation booked urgently after a rupture finding. If your implants predate the iPhone, that's your nudge.
