It was news to us, but according to an article in The New York Times, women who feel they are not amply endowed enough can get a temporary fix for the issue. It s very temporary, and may only last for about 24 hours, perhaps just long enough to allow one to fulfill the requirements of that special dress for a wedding or bar mitzvah.
The procedure involves injecting the breasts with a sterile saline solution, which plumps them up, but is quickly absorbed into the body. Apparently the procedure began as a way to allow women who planned to have breast implants to get an idea of how that surgical result would appear. However, as quoted in the article, a plastic surgeon in California, Dr. Steven Teitlebaum pointed out, the appearance is different from that resulting from implants. Further, he noted that 3-dimensional imaging would more accurately predict the appearance of those implants.
And the cost isn t trivial one woman s saline injection procedure cost $3500.
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom commented on the irony of the situation. Referring to the ongoing life threatening shortage of common hospital drugs, he says It borders on amusing that while saline (!) is one of the many drugs in short supply, for 3,000 bucks it becomes magically available for a use that is not only totally unnecessary, but just plain idiotic. Nice value system. You can read his 2011 NY Post op-ed entitled Running out of Common Drugs here.