In addition to a higher risk of complications during surgery, research also shows a direct connection between smoking and delayed wound healing after surgery. If you’re a smoker and you need surgery on your mouth (or any part of your body), it’s important to understand how smoking impacts your healing. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in your body. Without this necessary oxygen, surgical wounds take longer to close, which increases the risk of infection. It also increases your chances of scarring. Additionally, orthopaedic surgeries, which are those on your bones or joints, also take longer to heal.
While it’s hard to do, if you can quit smoking before your surgery, your body can heal faster and better. Within just a few days after quitting, your blood flow improves and your body starts to get more oxygen. Within four weeks of quitting, inflammatory cell response is reduced.
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