Will quitting smoking 1 month before tummy tuck be ok?

Smoking increases your chances of complications and poor healing, especially after operations like tummy tuck. Talk with your surgeon about his policy on quitting before and after surgery.As all the other doctors have indicated, it is important to quit before suregry and remain off all forms of nicotine after surgery too.

Smoking brings a significant risk of cancer, stroke, heat attack, etc. From a Plastic Surgery standpoint it is a vasoconstrictor. Wound healing is all about getting oxygen and needed entities to the wound. It is well known that patients who smoke have a tremendous increase in their rate of serious complications, (infections, wounds falling apart, etc.). Nicotine is the main vasoconstrictor, so getting a patch or lozenge of nicotine won't help the vasoconstriction. Best to be off the tobacco/nicotine entirely before surgery. Please be honest with your Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. Together you can make a plan to quit and proceed with surgery. The amount of time between quitting and surgery will depend on the Plastic Surgeon and the procedure.

If you stop smoking one month before surgery and continue to stop smoking during your recovery, you should increase your chances for healing. I require my patients to stop smoking before surgery, and the longer you do not smoke, the better your healing process will be. I wish you luck with your upcoming surgery and recovery!

Smoking and surgery are a bad combination. Smoking will not only increase your risk from anesthesia, but your wound healing can be affected as well.  Studies of shown that even a two-week cessation of smoking prior to surgery can demonstrate some clinical improvement  compared to patients who are active smokers. Obviously the longer the timeframe from smoking cessation to surgery, the better it will be.  There are some procedures such as tummy tucks or a breast reductions, that are even more susceptible to the negative effects of smoking.  I typically make my patients stop smoking for six weeks prior to their surgery.  Please understand also that a little bit of smoking is sort of like being a little bit pregnant.  You have to completely stop to be considered a non-smoker during that period.  Every physician has different protocols regarding smoking cessation, and you should ask your surgeon what their criteria are.  

Thanks for your inquiry.  Patients who are undergoing tummy tucks should quit smoking for weeks.  Each surgeon's protocol can be slightly different of three vs four weeks or even six weeks in some cases.  Please check with your surgeon, and good luck with surgery.  

You should be fine. Smoking, as you know, impairs oxygen delivery to tissues and therefore impairs wound healing.  Four weeks of all nicotine abstinence should get you in the clear.  Just remember, no cheating again preop and no cheating postop until your doctor clears you.  And remember, don't take it personally when people tell you how bad smoking is for your health.  It is not a character judgment, just a statement of risk with surgery.  Good luck! It's a hard habit to break but you can do it.

Thank you for your question.  Smoking is not a healthy choice.  It compromises the blood supply to the tissues and will definitely have an adverse impact on your results.  In addition, your lungs are injured with the smoke and toxins and this creates reactive airway that can lead to pulmonary complications as well.  It takes about four weeks for ones lungs to have improvement prior to anesthesia.   One month abstinence is my minimal preop requirement and it is just as important to refrain from smoking after surgery as well.  Ideally it would be a great lifetime change.  I recommend to my patients to not resume smoking for at least three months after surgery (this includes second hand smoke).  Good luck.

Hi.  The recommended time is 6 weeks prior to surgery.  4 weeks is cutting it fine but less than that is dangerous.  A tummy tuck is not one of the procedures where you want to try ad cheat the system - it can lead to disaster.  Don't have any more.

Thanks for your question. Congratulations on quitting smoking and scheduling your TT. A one month interval prior to your surgery should be enough time to allow recovery of your blood vessels. You cannot cheat however. One cigarettes can ruin your surgical result. Being around people who smoke can also ruin your result. The caliber of the blood vessel is dramatically reduced with cigarette smoking and this leads to poor oxygen delivery to healing tissue. This can be a disaster. Best of Luck!

At 1 month you should be fine.  Between now and the tummy tuck, cigarettes are definitely off limits.  Cigarette smoke contains 4000 toxic substances. The
effects of each of these substances on the outcome of tummy tuck has not been
studied individually. The most important issues with cigarette smoke is
the carbon monoxide, which compromises the oxygen delivery to the healing
tissues, and the nicotine, which causes spasm of the blood vessels delivering
blood to the healing wound. Anything that compromises healing can lead to
an increase risk of infection, wound separation, or tissue necrosis. Clearly eliminating the smoke is important
because of the carbon monoxide poisoning of the blood. Eliminating
nicotine is important as well. It would be wise to stay away from
nicotine and carbon monoxide until everything is completely healed.