Are lines and wrinkles showing up on your skin? Are you
considering facelift surgery to reverse signs of aging on your face? If your
answer is yes, you are not alone. There are many men and women who consider
facelift to look youthful and refreshed. This procedure can make you look years
younger. In this article, we will discuss an important factor associated with
the surgery. Although people do not give much importance to it, smoking can
have a great impact on facelift surgery, recovery and its outcomes.
Want to know how smoking and success of facelift surgery are
associated with each other? Keep reading.
Well, before knowing how smoking can affect facelift
surgery, it is important to know how much blood supply is important for
surgery. It would not be wrong to say that cosmetic surgery procedures including
facelift live on the edge of your blood supply. This is important to understand
if you want to get successful results without severe complications and
prolonged recovery period. Facelift surgery involves making alterations in the
face by removing and repositioning tissues and skin. When doing this, blood
supply to the tissues is changed. Blood supply is decreased but not enough to
interfere with healing.
How smoking hinders facelift surgery?
Facelift surgery is done at a limit of blood circulation to
facial skin and tissues allows. It is made sure that blood flowing to them is
enough to keep them alive. But certain factors can badly affect this blood
supply and baddest among them is “smoking”. Nicotine, carbon dioxide and
hydrogen cyanide in cigarette affect blood supply badly.
Effect of nicotine on healing process
Nicotine becomes the reason of contraction of blood vessels,
which affects the blood flow. It can clog small blood vessels and capillaries
and decrease blood supply to the tissues. This affects wound healing and as a
result healing process is delayed and severe complications can occur as well.
Smokers require more anesthesia and pain medications
Recent studies show that smokers need more amount of
anesthesia as compared to those who don’t smoke. Same is the case with pain
medications – smokers need more pain medications to relieve pain after facelift
surgery.
Patients who smoke are
generally recommended to quit smoking for few weeks before and after facelift
surgery – depending on the technique selected.
Now that you have come to know how smoking can affect your
facelift surgery, you must take proper steps to avoid any complications. Book a
consultation with an experienced plastic surgeon and make sure to follow his
instructions.
