Cigarettes and Surgery

Smoking puts nicotine in your system, constricting your blood vessels and decreasing amounts of oxygen in your bloodstream. This creates a higher chance that you will have a complication like infection, capsular contracture, or poor scarring. Risks increase the more you smoke, but even one cigarette a day has lasting effects on the health of your tissues and their ability to heal. Although I cancel surgeries like facelift, tummy tuck, or breast lift if patients smoke even a little, I still perform breast augmentation if patients smoke less than a half pack a day. However, please understand that you truly are putting the result of your whole surgery in jeopardy with even one cigarette.