More and more Maryland plastic surgery practices are establishing rules that require smokers to quit smoking for a period of several months surrounding their surgical procedures. Even today, few patients are familiar with the extensive clinical research showing how smoking cigarettes severely increases surgical risk for a wide variety of plastic surgery procedures, including face lift. Some of these risks can threaten your health significantly, but even “minimal” complications will often impede the success of your procedure and slow your recovery.

Why Smoking Adds to the Age of Your Face

Smoking, first of all, actively interferes with the natural self-renewal processes that maintain your skin. This is why so many smokers look more tired or “worn out” compared to people who have never smoked cigarettes. My Maryland face lift patients who have a history of smoking often present with:

• Deep lines and wrinkles around the lips and eyes, and a network of shallower wrinkles across the cheeks
• A bony, hollow look that gets worse with increased atrophy of the deeper layers of tissue which normally fill out and mask bone angles
• A yellowish-grey cast to the skin, combined with a variegated blotchiness that resembles skin problems associated with age or alcohol abuse

How Smoking Increases Surgical Risk and Impedes Healing

Chemicals in cigarettes damage your circulatory system, depriving your tissues of the nourishment they need to maintain themselves and to regenerate after surgery. This means that even smokers eligible for a Maryland plastic surgery procedure may recover more slowly than nonsmokers. I require all my patients who smoke to stop the use of cigarettes and other tobacco products for several weeks both before and after a surgical procedure. While this helps to improve outcomes, these patients are still at an elevated risk of complications.

Ways smoking causes problems during and after surgery:

• It dramatically increases your risk of necrosis (flesh decay) at incision sites
• It increases your risk of experiencing a lung infection after anesthesia
• It can double the risk of hemorrhage (excessive bleeding)
• It increases your risk of poor incision healing and heavy scarring
• It may cause unnecessary loss of skin and hair after a procedure
• Associated coughing and tissue weakness can cause incision ruptures

Hints for Patients Who Smoke

Often, patients at my practice find that the thought of a younger face and fresher outlook is enough to motivate them to quit well in advance of their surgery, and many are able to quit for good. If quitting is just too difficult for you, substituting cigarettes with nicotine therapy for the period before and after surgery may be the solution. Giving your skin and face a break from the harmful pollutants contained in cigarette smoke for at least 4 weeks prior and 4 weeks after your procedure can significantly diminish many of your surgical risks.

As always, the best thing you can do is to be honest with your doctor about your habit and discuss your options thoroughly to ensure satisfying surgical results.