I’m currently on Suboxone. Will this effect my BBL/breast augmentation?

Hello, thank you for your question. The physician that prescribing you suboxone can work with your plastic surgeon to decide on a good post op protocol, I recommend you to talk to your board certified plastic surgeon.

Being on Suboxone can have major impact on surgical recovery.

The first person to talk to is the prescriber of Suboxone.

You will either need to come off the Suboxone or go through the surgery with Suboxone on board.

Suboxone as you know is an opioid agonist and antagonist. This means that other narcotic pain medication will not work or be effective if you need pain control after surgery.

Suboxone also has a long half life so coming off this medication typically is a fairly complex process.

If your decision is to go through with the surgery while on Suboxone then it is imperative that both your plastic surgeon and the anesthesiologist understands how this drug works and has some type of pain control plan for you for your procedure and recovery.

This could for example mean that the surgeon inject large amounts of long lasting local anesthesia in all the areas that are treated so that you have minimal pain especially in the early postoperative period.

Another option is to simply realize that you will be in pain and there will be limited pain medications to control this especially early after surgery like in the recovery area.

Most recovery room nurses or anesthesiologist will Most likely be uncomfortable pushing enough narcotics to override the antagonistic effect of Suboxone.

It’s also important for your recovery that you make a solid decision if narcotics are going to be part of the postoperative treatment for pain.

Personally I do liposuction and fat transfer procedures with my patients awake using local anesthesia with mild sedation. When it’s done this way the surgeon has to inject enough numbing medicine that the patient is reasonably comfortable afterwards.

When done under general anesthesia the surgeon does not always inject sufficient amounts of local anesthesia for the patients to be comfortable when they wake up from surgery.

Also, breast augmentation is probably better done with general anesthesia.

If you have a plastic surgeon then talk to him or her about your medical history and how they want to manage this as soon as possible. If not bring it up during consultations.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD