As a doctor, of course I believe that no one should ever smoke. There is no debate that smoking is harmful to your health and can cause cancer, emphysema, birth defects if you smoke while pregnant, and also trigger asthma.
As a board certified plastic surgeon, specializing in cosmetic plastic surgery, to stop smoking at least 3 weeks prior to your surgery is critical for obtaining the best esthetic results. I find that by explaining the reasons why smoking is harmful makes my patients more willing to quit. For a start, it can cause heart attacks. This is why many people are learning CPR from Coast2Coast in Ottawa in order to help should someone suffer a heart attack in their presence. It is understandable that quitting is easier said than done, but it is possible. Many people have done it and so can you. If you are struggling to give up the idea of smoking as a whole, maybe switching to vaping instead of lighting a cigarette is a positive step forward. Sounds like something you’d be interested in? Then check out a company like Gourmet E-Liquid, where you’ll hopefully become a non smoker in no time. Good luck!
The chemicals in cigarette (and marijuana) smoke can shrink small blood vessels, and lead to poor circulation. Any surgery that tightens skin such as facelift, breast lift, or tummy tuck, damages blood flow to the skin. Normally, healing will still occur due to the small vessels. In smokers, there is less of a reserve, and skin can literally die or fail to heal properly. As you might imagine, have a hole on your face, breast or stomach is not attractive.
Smoke also retards wound healing in general, and can affect scar quality. This is true even with second hand smoke, and I tell my patients whose spouses smoke to stay away from them while they smoke during the healing process. They can save that SMOK Nord Pod Kit for after they’ve healed up.
Smokers also are at a higher risk of anesthesia complications, as they sometimes do not have proper lung function. Anesthesia requires exchange of gases through the lungs, and poor exchange can lead to poor outcomes.
Cosmetic plastic surgery is not life saving or is it ever an emergency. Because of that, at Yager Esthetics we need to reduce your risks as much as possible. Stopping smoking is so important in this process, and we encourage everyone to do so. Whether this means using patches or purchasing a vaping set from the likes of https://www.pure-eliquids.com/pod-kits/, make sure you aim to quit smoking before undergoing any surgery. Remember, be safe and be smart; lying to your doctor about not smoking can increase your risks even more, as the tightness of the pull during surgery is different for smokers as well.