If you are going into any kind of surgery, it is common knowledge that you should stop smoking. While this is documented, do the same health risks come in with vaping? The answer is a resounding yes. For any kind of surgery, especially plastic surgery, you should stop intake of all tobacco products. The primary reason is that all tobacco, smoking, vaping, and chewing, have nicotine. Here is why you should stop vaping before plastic surgery.
Nicotine is the big bad guy for the equation. Nicotine is known as a vasoconstrictor, or blood vessel reducer. The effects of nicotine on the body reduces how fast your body can recover by decreasing circulation. While this is normally alright, having this effect while healing from surgery can lengthen how long it takes to get better and lead to the need for additional surgery. The effects are worse with plastic surgery due to all the micro vessels in the skin.
Another risk for surgery is anesthesia. Intaking nicotine alters the basic chemistry of your body over time. This makes it difficult to predict how certain chemicals and medicines will affect your body. The same can be said for the effectiveness of pain medication for recovery. Either of these not working as they should can make the surgery more painful than it should be. For long term nicotine users, you also deplete the oxygen in your blood, which could make it harder to breather under anesthesia.
Vaping is safer than smoking in this regard, but not by much. Smoking can have the increased risk of blood clots and infections but vaping still contains nicotine. Even if you switch to vaping, you still run the risks above and an additional risk of scarring. For plastic surgery, scaring is the last thing you want, regardless of how skilled your surgeon is. For facelifts, tummy tucks, or even breast augmentation, the goal is to reduce the scarring size. Nicotine intake can make these scars more pronounced.
The news is not all bad. When you decide that you are going to have surgery, you should take steps to stop your nicotine intake as soon as possible. With vaping, you can stage down the amount of nicotine inside your vapes. This will help you ween yourself off quicker than with cigarettes. Ideally, you want to stop as soon as possible. You should aim to stop vaping at the very minimum of six weeks before any major surgery, or eight weeks for plastic surgery.
Vaping is considerably safer in several regards over cigarettes, but not in this arena. There are several major complications that can happen with vaping before plastic surgery. You do not want increased scaring, longer recovery time, or worse, additional surgery. Take the word for the wise and reduce your use then quit altogether for at least two months before hand and one month after. It may seem like a long stretch, but by practicing safe methods of vaping before plastic surgery, you increase your chances of success.
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