(CBS) If you’re a smoker considering a breast lift, consider yourself warned: cigarette smoking can cause your nipples to droop.
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This eyebrow-raising warning comes from Dr. Anthony Yoon, a Detroit-based plastic surgeon and author of the plastic surgery memoir “In Stitches.”
“I cringe every time I see a breast lift patient who is a smoker,” Youn wrote CNN. “I am deathly afraid that despite my warnings, she will smoke before or after the operation and cause her nipples to turn black and droop.”
On his blog, Youn shares the story of a surgical patient who smoked too soon after surgery, causing her nipples to turn purple. Once they turn purple, there isn’t much time for the nipples to turn black and fall off, she said. The only way he could prevent this from happening? Leeches.
“We went medieval,” Yun wrote. The leeches would suck out the excess blood – which contained toxins – over a few days to improve the patient’s condition.
Is there any truth to this cautionary tale? Can smoking really cause a breast lift recipient’s nipples to droop?
Absolutely, says Dr. Jennifer Walden, an Austin, Texas-based plastic surgeon.
“Although it sounds graphic and kind of gross, it’s important to talk about this complication so that patients consider themselves forewarned,” Walden told CBS News.
Walden said smoking causes blood vessels to constrict, which cuts off the blood supply around the breast, resulting in nipple death. Youn described tobacco toxins as a “virtual tourniquet.”
But Walden warns that there are many other risks plastic surgery patients face if they smoke.
She said skin-lifting procedures, including facelifts, tummy tucks and mastectomies, are particularly dangerous for smokers. Smoking, he said, could cause skin death underneath where the flap of skin is, which could cause chronic problems like open sores and infections. In addition, he said, smokers seeking breast augmentation with a lift could face serious complications if the skin flap housing the implant deteriorates.
“We would have a real problem on our hands with the implant exposed,” Walden said.
That’s why Walden tells prospective patients who smoke to stop smoking long before surgery, at least two weeks before and after the procedure. She realizes this is no easy task, which is why plastic surgeons often refer patients to smoking cessation specialists, psychotherapists or acupuncturists to get them to kick the habit before the procedure.
After a month are recovering patients in the clear?
Walden says they may still be at risk, albeit less, if the surgical sites don’t heal completely. But why risk messing up an expensive process, he asked? Her advice to patients:
“The most important thing is to be honest about smoking because you could end up with a real problem on your hands.”
Ryan Jaslow
