1.   Bigger breasts are also in demand now that safer saline implants have replaced silicone.

2.   Bioengineer Craig Halberstadt, of Carolina Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, designs and grows breast tissue, which may one day replace saline implants.

3.   A primary worry was how both silicone and saline implants get in the way of mammograms and can mask breast lumps, preventing early cancer detection.

4.   He says women desiring bigger breasts held off from having the surgery until they could gather more information about the safety and durability of saline implants.

5.   He usually works with saline implants, although he occasionally uses silicone-gel implants in an FDA-approved experimental program.

6.   In most patients, the expander is removed and replaced by a silicone-gel or saline implant.

7.   Many women with the silicone-gel implants had them removed and some opted for saline implants, which were touted as a safer, more natural alternative.

8.   Saline implants have not been linked to health problems, although scar tissue can harden around the implants in some cases and cause discomfort.

9.   Saline implants then gained acceptance as a safer alternative.

10.   Saline implants are available, and vegetable oil and other viscous material are being studied as filling to replace silicone.