Is 3 Weeks Long Enough to Past a Nicotine Unine Test & Have a Safe Breast Agumentation & Lift

Thank you for your question.Only your surgeon can answer this question. I would recommend contacting him/her to discuss this. The use of nicotine products may cause would healing issues and complications. The longer you are off cigarettes the better. Best of lukc!

Most experts unanimously agree that smoking increases the rate of breast augmentation surgical complications significantly. Just about all plastic surgeons strongly recommend women to stop smoking and all nicotine products well in advance of breast augmentation with breast implants. Many plastic surgeons recommend stopping all tobacco products several months prior to surgery.Here is the reason why: the nicotine in cigarettes and other tobacco products (including Nicorette gum, patches, etc) is a vasoconstrictor, meaning it makes the Smoking is a significant multiplier of many potential complications following surgery and breast augmentation with implants are no exception. Nicotine from smoking causes blood vessels to vasoconstrict ( tighten up). Over time, these constricted arteries and capillaries deliver less blood to the breast tissue which is needed for normal healing. Smokers therefore have an increased incidence of higher likelihood of complications such as infection, and in particular capsular contracture (hardening and distortion of the implants). General complications of surgery such as blood clots, anesthetic problems such as pneumonia are also increased. A scientific article in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicated that, among all forms of surgery, quitting smoking eight weeks prior was never associated with an increased risk of complications.In young patients you will probably statistically avoid these complications, why tempt fate by increasing your odds that something bad will happen.On a long term basis, smoking also causes accelerated aging of the skin and loss of elasticity. Hopefully these reasons will help give you the will power and courage to stop smoking.

Thank you for your question. Smoking before or after your surgery can increase your risk of developing complications including infection and wound healing problems. I tell my patients that it is ideal to stop a couple months ahead of surgery and then for a couple months after surgery. Please discuss with your surgeon what their guidelines are for your particular surgery.

Hello! Thank you for your question! The issue with nicotine is that it
also acts as a vasoconstrictor, clamping down of blood vessels. Blood
supply is always of great concern during any surgical procedure, but
especially in such a procedure as a breast procedure where the viability of the
nipple-areolar complex is obviously important. Since the vascularity to
the area is already tenuous since it will be raised by cutting around
the area, maximizing blood flow to the tissue is critical. Typically,

we recommend at least 6 weeks of smoking cessation prior to and at
least 6 weeks after any surgical procedure. The longer, the better.
Nicotine always increases the risk for infection, nipple necrosis, poor
scarring, and
wound complications, as well as other health consequences. The
anesthesia risk is greater with general anesthesia as well as pulmonary
issues/lung infections postoperatively. I would
discuss this with your surgeon prior to your procedure. Hope that this
helps! Best wishes!

As you can imagine, smoking is bad for breast augmentation, (and surgery in general). Most would say that you have a significantly higher rate of wound complications. When one takes a drag on a cigarette, the chemicals cause vasoconstriction. Wound healing is all about getting blood flow and oxygen to the tissue. I believe that you will find that each doctor may have a different opinion as to how long you need to be off cigarettes. Some will test for nicotine in the system. Best to talk with your board certified plastic surgeon. He obviously feels strongly about this issue. He has a good point, especially when doing a lift as there will be additional tension on the wound. Also best to quit smoking, (for a variety of other health reasons as well).

 Hi LouLou,

Different surgeons have different criteria regarding smoking and not all breast lifts are perfomed similarly. For that reason, you're best off discussing this issue with your surgeon. If he thinks that you're at an unacceptably high risk of potentially devastating complication, he'll tell you. Perhaps his office would be willing to re-schedule the procedure at a later time; that way, everyone wins.

Hope this helps. All the best.

Here are the major points of smoking Tobacco or Marijuana before or after surgery:1. There is nicotine in tobacco, but not in marijuana. However, most joints are rolled with marijuana and tobacco combination. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor that decreases blood flow to the tissues. This is the major problems that can cause a very bad outcome in some surgeries. In a breast augmentation, there is not a lot of risk as there are not a lot of incisions which decrease blood flow to the tissues. In a breast lift or tummy tuck, on the other hand, there is much longer and more involved incisions. The decrease in blood flow to the tissues in combination with the decrease in blood flow from the nicotine can cause tissue to die. This can cause part of the breast or nipple, or in the case of a tummy tuck, part of the belly tissue to die, resulting in a very bad outcome. Marijuana without tobacco does not cause this problem, or marijuana in an edible fashion. Vaporizers do not decrease the amount of nicotine in tobacco, only decrease the smoke.2. There is carbon monoxide in both tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke. Carbon monoxide decreases the oxygen carrying capacity of hemoglobin in the blood. This is different from the vasoconstrictor effect, but has the same result of having the risk of tissue death in conjunction with surgeries that decrease the blood flow to tissues such as breast lifts and tummy tucks, as opposed to an augmentation alone that does not decrease blood flow to as great of an extent. Again, edible forms of marijuana do not have smoke, and thus carbon monoxide poisoning.3. Coughing. Both tobacco and marijuana smoke disrupt the lining of the lungs and bronchi and can lead to coughing episodes. Coughing episodes can lead to internal bleeding after surgery that can lead to hematomas and complications, and again a bad outcome. Again, edible forms of marijuana does not have this effect.4. Anesthesia effects. Marijuana can have drug interactions with certain anesthetic drugs. Thus it is important to tell your anesthesiologist about your marijuana use.In conclusion, Smoking, whether it be tobacco or marijuana, is detrimental to your surgery outcome. Edible marijuana is much less so, but be honest about your use with your surgeon and anesthesiologist so that you can have the best outcome. In general, you should quite smoking many weeks, ideally 6 weeks before surgery, and not smoke for at least 2 weeks after surgery.Best wishes,Pablo Prichard, MD

Very wise to check on this. As nicotine tends to constrict blood vessels, limiting the oxygen that is carried throughout the body and to surgical site, stopping this product before surgery is essential. Yes, 2-3 weeks without nicotine should be enough time to clear.

Smoking definitely can have detrimental outcomes on surgery.  Your surgeon obviously feels very strongly about this issue.  The agreement you had is unusual but you did agree to it.  Be honest with your surgeon and he can decide if he wants to proceed with your surgery or not.

Smoking can have a detrimental effect on healing after cosmetic surgery, notably in facelift and in tummy tuck procedures. Smoking risks are of minor significance for breast surgery and we do not use a urine smoking test or demand individuals stop, and we feel you should do well smoking or not. Of course not smoking is better but the urine test seems a bit punitive. The 50% failure fee is probably something you never should have agreed to.

Best of luck,

peterejohnsonmd