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    What Smoking Does To Your Skin

    Tag Archives: Stop Smoking

    It’s no secret that there are plenty of negative side effects associated with smoking. Along side the obvious health risks that you are taking when you choose to smoke, the signs of your bad habit will be all over your skin too. ‘Smokers face’ is a term that has long been used to describe the older and greying skin that many long term smoker possess thanks to chemicals that starve the skin of oxygen and stop the ‘glow’. Here are some of the ways that smoking damages your skin:

    Wrinkles

    Both the blood supply and skin cells are damaged by chemicals in cigarette smoke which leads to drier and more wrinkle prone skin. Carbon monoxide strips the oxygen from the blood that is vital in keeping skin supple and healthy, while free radicals cause cell changes that contribute to wrinkles. On top of the chemical causes of wrinkles, the constant sucking action lead to those tell-tale wrinkles around the mouth.

    Scarring

    Nicotine causes vasoconstriction (or narrowing of the veins) which means less blood supply can get to wounds in the healing process. Not only can this be an issue from a surgical standpoint but it also leads to scars that are darker, larger and take longer to heal than they would be in non-smokers.

    Psoriasis

    Psoriasis is an auto-immune skin condition that effects many people, smokers and non-smokers alike, causing skin redness, irritation and scaly, flaky skin. Even though people who have never touched a cigarette suffer from this condition, those who smoke have a 60% higher chance of developing psoriasis than their non-smoking counterparts.

    Skin Cancer

    Excessive sun light exposure is the dominant factor behind skin cancer cases world wide, but studies show that smoking also increases your risk of developing this type of cancer as well as numerous others such as oral and lung cancer.

    Avoiding smoking is beneficial in many different ways from the superficial to long term health and reduces many risks associated with surgery.

    For more information on procedures offered by Dr McCluskey and the Plastic Surgery Institute of Atlanta visit:

    We all know that there are many, many reasons to stop smoking: the health complications are extensive and the effect on you appearance alone are hugely significant. Smoking also adds a significantly higher risk of complications when it comes to surgery. As a rule I don’t operate on smokers. I try to work with patients that do smoke to set parameters for their safety or to help them to stop smoking completely (if they are interested). If you are a chronic smoker then during your consultation I will explain the risks of smoking with regard to plastic surgery and I’ll ask you to stop smoking one month prior to surgery and one month afterward.  It might sound like a big challenge, but I’m asking you to cease smoking for a period of one month.

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    Even if you follow these instructions to the letter and quit smoking one month before and one month after surgery you are still at risk for many of the complications typical for smokers, naturally it’s always preferable that patients stop smoking completely. One of the many reasons smoking is problematic in regards to surgery is that chemicals found in cigarettes cause blood to clot less easily which can be extremely problematic, . If you are a smoker any issues or questions you may have will be discussed in detail at your consultation so that you can be fully educated and prepared before scheduling surgery.

    To learn more about procedures offered by Dr McCluksey and the Plastic Surgery Institute of Atlanta visit https://psiatlanta.com/ and http://sexualaesthetics.com/