Hello again, Silicone City?

It's news you might have missed, but late last month the FDA lifted a 14-year-old moratorium on silicone breast implants. Big deal? Yeah, potentially — many women prefer the softer, lighter-weight silicone implants to the saline implants that have been used for the past few years, and the move back to silicone could mean a boom for plastic surgeons in Houston, where fake boobs are unusually popular (our fair city even earned the nickname "Silicone City" at one point, which is something we can all be proud of).

Breast enhancement goes back a long way — to the late 1800s, according to Wikipedia — and people have tried putting a lot of stuff in their breasts to fill them out, including wool, glass balls, ground rubber and even cellophane-wrapped sponges. But it wasn't until 1963, when silicone implants were introduced by Houston doctors Frank Gerow and Thomas Cronin, that there was a viable way to make breasts bigger. Gerow and Cronin's implants had thick rubbery shells filled with viscous silicone gel; over the years, the gel and outer shell were made thinner to make the implants look and feel more natural. That's where the problems came in: The shells ruptured easily, allowing silicone to leak into the body, and in some cases the shells were thin enough that there was silicone leakage without a rupture. A flurry of lawsuits and the FDA moratorium followed, but that didn't really deter American women from wanting to enhance their womanhood(s):

"Something like 50 percent of American women are dissatisfied with the shape or size of their breasts," said Franklin Rose, a popular Houston plastic surgeon. "Some of it is cultural, but I believe some of it is innate. There is a certain attractiveness to the breast that goes back to antiquity. An attractive female form is mentioned in the Old Testament. I think many more would consider surgery than do if it were not cost-prohibitive for them."

The cost could keep many women using saline even though silicone is available: Saline implants generally run around $900 versus $1,500 for silicone. Still, silicone will be worth the extra cost for some people: "I wasn't happy with saline," Stacy Thompkins, a Houston hairdresser who switched from saline to silicone implants. "They weren't as natural-looking or -feeling. I felt like I was carrying around melons on my chest. They were much harder and heavier."

According to the FDA, studies haven't linked silicone implants to any of the illnesses they were accused of causing. Though there have been improvements in the implants — thicker shells, a thicker silicone mixture — the agency said it'll keep a close watch on women who get silicone implants now and will require warnings that the silicone implants will eventually need replacing. Even with the extra care, not everyone is happy with the lifting of the moratorium: "[The FDA] can't tell women how long these products last, when they will have to be replaced or what the effect on their health will be if the product fails," National Women's Health Network Program Director Amy Alina told the Chronicle. "Why did they do it? The best reason I can come up with is that they have been worn down and don't want to deal with the issue anymore."