Patients don’t simply walk in the surgeon’s clinic and get approved automatically to undergo the surgery they desire. There are a lot of processes that they have to go through after the first consultation. Questions will be thrown at you and the plastic surgeon will assess your readiness as a candidate for surgery based on the answers and reasoning you give him.

Smoking causes a lot of complications to the body especially if you are planning on undergoing surgery. Regardless of the type of procedure, minimally invasive or not, you have to quit smoking as early as possible. Your doctor would probably advise you to stop 2 or 3 months before your scheduled surgery.

Studies have shown that smokers are twice more likely to develop complications after their surgery. Smokers have increased cardiovascular complications and are more at risk of being placed under mechanical ventilation following the surgery. The risk for pneumonia is also twice as much for people who have a habit of smoking.

If you have already arranged for your breast augmentation surgery and you are a smoker, you should listen to your plastic surgeon. Abstain from smoking as early as possible before the surgery and as long as possible after. If you want a successful breast surgery, you should never smoke especially when the surgery date is a few weeks away.

Smokers are more likely to contract infections and increases inflammation. The risks for cardiovascular problems are:

·       -  57% more likely to have cardiac arrest

·       -  80% more likely to have a heart attack

·       -  73% more likely to have a stroke

Not only that, nicotine and other chemicals constrict the blood vessels thus prolonging the healing process, read more here. There could be chances when the tissues are not supplied with enough blood and it becomes a dark patch of practically dead cells. Aside from cigarettes, patients should also stay away from products which have nicotine such as patches.

These statistics should spur you and other smokers out there to refrain from this habit specifically if you are about to go under the knife. New York plastic surgeons and anesthesiologists always make it a point to talk with their patients who are smokers to make them understand the implications of their habit.

Patients who smoke have special treatment and consideration during and after the surgery. Doctors and anesthesiologists take the necessary precautions to reduce the patient’s risk to complications. Nevertheless, for some it is a defining moment to quit smoking altogether.