Smoking and Plastic Surgery

    /24-7PressRelease/ - August 15, 2008 - The smoke in tobacco contains over 3,800 identified substances. The two that have the most detrimental effects on healing are:
• Carbon Monoxide
• Nicotine

Cosmetic surgeons are trained to understand and assess all potential patients and their health conditions and to customize treatments. Many experienced and board-certified plastic surgeons choose to limit the types of cosmetic surgery they will perform on smokers. Their reasons are:
• The increased risk of heart and lung complications and
• The slower healing process which can impair recovery.

They are not willing to risk (a) the patient's health and welfare, or (b) their own reputations by doing cosmetic surgery on a poor candidate.

If you are a smoker
Your choices will be limited. You can probably not have breast augmentation, liposuction or nose reshaping. Nor can you likely have a face lift, tummy tuck, or breast reduction. You could have non-invasive procedures, such as laser skin resurfacing or injectable fillers.

If a surgeon were to agree to give you some kind of surgery, you will probably be asked to refrain from smoking for at least two weeks before any surgery and for some time afterwards. You could take this opportunity to quit completely, as you might be offered aids such as nicotine patches or oral medications to help with the quitting period.

If you were to fail in following your cosmetic surgeons pre-surgery instructions, the surgeon would probably cancel your surgery. This would be to your advantage as well as the surgeon's, as you would be a poor candidate for the procedure.

Good recovery
A successful recovery requires good blood circulation. The treated area must repair and rebuild itself where the skin and underlying tissue has been cut and reconnected with stitches or tape. Tobacco smoke constricts blood vessels and thus impairs blood circulation.

Good recovery also depends on good communication between patient and surgeon. There would be no point in trying to conceal a smoking habit. If you are a smoker and would like to have a cosmetic surgery procedure your best step would be to quit, period. Next best would be to quit temporarily for whatever time period your cosmetic surgeon recommends.

The best cosmetic surgeons put a high value on patient education and would want you to understand well why smoking will work against a good cosmetic surgery outcome. The more well-informed a patient and his surgeon are, the better the results of the procedure will be. If you succeed in quitting altogether, you will look back and wonder why you ever thought smoking was a good thing!

Contact Dr. Paul Angelchik for more information about your cosmetic surgery options.

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