By: Michael Chiaramonte, MD, FACS

Having breast augmentation during the summer months can mean extra challenges for many Washington, DC cosmetic surgery patients, but a little planning can go a long way.

On the plus side, summer vacation hours can make it easier to plan time away from work or college for recovery. However, summer heat and vacation activities can create genuine concerns for healing. What to do:

Step 1: Beat the Heat

Know the Challenges:

• Sun exposure on incision sites that haven’t fully healed can inhibit healing, damage tissues, and stimulate the formation of scars that are larger, darker and more noticeable.
• Heat affects your body in many ways, especially by requiring you to burn energy to keep yourself cool. This can put extra stress on your body as you recover from a Maryland breast enlargement procedure.

Plan Your Solutions:

• Stay in the shade. This should be an easy one, but sometimes recovering patients have trouble resisting the lure of the beach or the pool. Tanning and sunburns use energy from your body, so avoid exposing even non-treatment areas to the sun for extended periods of time.
• Avoid sweating. Walking and movement during recovery are important, but incision cleanliness is even more crucial to avoid infection.

Step 2: Give Yourself Space

When you’re planning your breast augmentation recovery, it can be easy to underestimate the amount of time you’ll need to give yourself just to rest, and if you schedule summer holiday functions close to the time of your procedure, this can make recovery less restful than it should be.

Healing is not an instant process and it takes work, so be sure to give yourself plenty of leeway to recover. If you think your summer plans might make this difficult, ask your surgeon. He or she should be able to give you a good idea of what activities you can do, when – and what to avoid.