You may be familiar with the ways in which smoking can compromise your lungs and oral health. However, this addictive habit can also be the reason you don’t get the plastic surgery results you had hoped for. Before any type of plastic surgery, it is important that you kick your nicotine habit. This means you’ll need to stop snuff, chewing tobacco, cigarettes, pipes, cigars and e-cigarettes as well as any chewing gum or patches that contain the harmful ingredient of nicotine.
How Nicotine Can Sabotage Your Plastic Surgery
Regardless of the way in which you consume it, nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. This means it can constrict or narrow the blood vessels that carry vital nutrients and oxygen to your skin and tissues. After plastic surgery, you need these blood vessels to be operating at full capacity to encourage optimal healing, which means less risk of infection, less visible scarring, less pain and less recovery time.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, mixing nicotine with plastic surgery can result in the following problems:
- Loss of cheek skin, nipples or tummy skin after a facelift, breast lift, breast reduction, or tummy tuck surgery
- Infections
- Death of fat cells (fat necrosis), causing hard lumps
- Delayed wound healing
- Thick, wide scars
- Blood clots, which can be fatal
- Increased pain
- Permanent small vessel damage adding risk even if you quit
- Loss of breast implants
- Life-threatening complications like stroke, heart attack, blood clots, and pneumonia
At Hillcrest Plastic Surgery, we know that your cosmetic procedures are a serious investment of your time and money. We also realize the importance of making sure your results and recovery are as ideal as possible. In doing so, we strongly discourage smoking before or after plastic surgery. For more information on how long you’ll need to stay away from nicotine to protect your plastic surgery investment, please call our Orlando office. We believe health and beauty go hand in hand.
