Fillers can yield the desired results whether your goals are to obtain a certain shape, add volume, or correct asymmetry. Just like any cosmetic procedure, after treatment, maintenance measures should be in place to provide the finest result.
However, one common question that comes up frequently is: Can you smoke after lip fillers?
The short answer is no. Smoking delays your healing, may cause infections and uneven results. What’s more? This post will discuss the importance of quitting smoking after receiving lip fillers and offer advice on how to take care of your freshly plumped lips.
How Are Lip Fillers Administered?
Lip filler administration is a relatively simple and quite a quick treatment that lasts from a half an hour to an hour. This is a detailed explanation of how the procedure normally works:
- Consultation:It is imperative to get a consultation with a certified practitioner before the treatment. You will talk about your expectations, aspirations, and any worries you may have during this discussion.
- Preparation:On the day of the treatment, the aesthetician cleans the lips to provide a sterile environment with the use of a local anesthetic or numbing lotion as painkillers.
- Injection: The lip filler is administered into the region of the lip by use of a small needle or cannula.
- Shaping:This is achieved by a gentle massage on the lips after the injection to avoid any lumps or bumps.
- Aftercare:To guarantee the best possible treatment and outcomes, this typically entails abstaining from specific behaviors, like smoking.
Types of Lip Fillers Available
There are myriad types of lip fillers, which are:
- Hyaluronic Acid Fillers:Are natural commonly used fillers. You can use an enzyme called hyaluronidase to remove the filler if you're not happy with the outcome.
- Fillers made of collagen: Collagen fillers used to be the standard for lip augmentation, but they are less popular now because of the popularity of hyaluronic acid fillers. Although collagen fillers can increase volume and are made from animal products, there is a greater chance that they can cause allergic reactions.
- Permanent Fillers: They are composed of synthetic materials that the body cannot absorb. They do not easily reverse and have other risks.
- Fat Transfer: In this operation, your lips are injected with fat that has been extracted from another area of your body. Although it needs a more invasive operation and has a longer recovery period, this technique offers a more natural alternative.
Why Smoking After Lip Fillers is Harmful
If you practice smoking after getting the lip fillers, you’ll not only compromise the appearance of the results that are already known but may also expose one to several serious health complications. The following shows why:
1. Poor Healing
The main reason not to smoke is that it can slow down the healing process after lip fillers. The main constituent present in cigarettes is nicotine, and it narrows the diameter of blood arteries. This contraction minimizes blood to the lip, important for the lips to heal from the injection of the filler.
Reduced blood flow increases the risk of bruising, prolonged swelling, and affects the even settling of the fillers in your lips. You surely don't want to walk out of the office with bad results after hefty investments in a cosmetic procedure.
2. Increased Risk of Infection
The tiny holes that the practitioners use to let in the fillers may cause small wounds. If these small wounds are not taken care of as they should, they get infected very easily.
Smoking after lip filler injections means transferring several bacteria into your mouth and to the area around the lips, which can easily lead to an infection. Infections are bound to be painful and uncomfortable. Moreover, they modalize the lip appearance, which might lead to more further treatment.
3. Uneven Results
What people most aim for with lip filler is proper symmetry and balance. However, by smoking, this may not be achieved. Smoking requires you to stick your lips out, and at this point, there is a possibility that the filler you had injected recently will be pressed on.
The displacement upon compression will lead to uneven results. Additionally, heat production from smoking after lip fillers can potentially add to swelling, complicating the process of the settling of the filler.
4. Increased Risk of Necrosis
Smoking after lip filler injection increases the risk of necrosis by a vast percentage. In cigarette smoke, there is nicotine, a vasoconstrictor that decreases the blood flow by constricting the blood vessels in the lips. Tissue necrosis is a perilous effect where the death of tissue can lead to an unrepairable condition, including scarring and damage in lip tissues in a case where the blood supply is grossly choked off.
5. Prolonged Swelling and Bruising
Post-procedural effects, such as swelling and bruising, are also exacerbated when you smoke after lip fillers. The length it may take for the skin to heal also increases. When the chemicals in a cigarette cause inflammatory responses, it is likely that the body is working harder to reduce the patient's swelling, and therefore may have a harder time healing.
Secondly, the inability to repair the blood vessels correctly in the vessel could be why the bruises stay so long. The last thing a doctor would want to do is give additional measures to help counteract the long length of the skin's healing.
6. Compromised Aesthetic Longevity
Smoking can decrease the duration that lip fillers last. Fillers are made to eventually mix naturally with the neighboring tissue, thereby contributing to a natural outlook. Smoking limits this fusion process because it constricts blood vessels and diminishes oxygen supply, making the degradation of fillers speedy. The net result in this case is low appreciation time that the lip filler stays and the need for more frequent touch-ups to maintain the desired appearance.
7. High Sensitivity and Pain
Smoking after lip fillers may also result in the effect of rendering the treated area more sensitive and painful. This is because cigarette smoke naturally contains nicotine and other compounds that may be extremely painful by the sensitive tissues of the lips, causing pains, burning sensations, or hypersensitivity. Hence, an increased rate of discomfort inflicted during the healing process complicates the healing process.
8. Increased Likelihood of Scarring
Smoking after lip fillers can cause increased scarring. The disruption that smoking causes in the healing process can make the scars from injections more emphasized as scars. How fillers are supposed to give a smooth, even look may be completely altered by these scars, and sometimes, this can be when the damage is irreparable.
9. It Lowers General Satisfaction
Smokers may not be satisfied with their lip augmentation results due to the adverse effects of smoking on the healing process and integration of fillers. Asymmetric, increased incidence of complications, delayed healing, and decreased duration of the results may all accumulate in a dissatisfactory outcome and a general loss of value in the investment.
10. Interference with Hyaluronic Acid Function
Due to smoking, the body can become dehydrated, which can reduce the hydrating and volumizing capacity through hyaluronic acid. This may consequently lead to bad results and an unexpectedly early return for more procedures.
11. Increased Risk of Allergic Reactions
Smoking may worsen the immune response that your body produces, which may raise the possibility of an allergic reaction to the lip fillers. By not smoking, one can prevent the entrance of foreign chemicals, the toxins, included in cigarette smoke, which can cause inflammation, swelling, and other allergic symptoms.
12. Deficiency in Immune Response
Smoking impairs immunity, which reduces its capacity to fend off infections and aid in the healing process. This weakened immune system may increase the risk of post-procedural problems, such as infections that are more difficult to cure and have more severe and enduring consequences.
13. Inadequate Identification of Issues
Smoking can conceal early warning indicators of problems that are often written off as standard post-procedural symptoms, such as minor increases in edema or discoloration. If these problems are not identified in a timely manner, it may result in more serious consequences such as filler migration or tissue injury.
14. Reduced Vascular Health
Smoking for an extended period of time can worsen vascular health overall, increasing the risk of damage to blood vessels and reducing their ability to deliver enough oxygen and nutrients to the treated region. This impedes the healing process even more and raises the possibility of long-term harm, such tissue stiffening or permanent lip discolouration.
15. Increased Stress in the Skin
Smoking repeatedly puts the skin surrounding the lips under continuous mechanical stress. The aesthetic benefits of lip fillers can be negated by this repetitive action. The chemicals in cigarettes accelerate the aging process of the skin, impair its elasticity, and cause fine lines and wrinkles to develop around the lips.
16. Possibility of Prolonged Lip Deformities
In severe situations, smoking continuously after getting lip fillers might permanently alter the curve of the lips. Smoking pressure, uneven healing, and filler breakdown can cause asymmetry, lumps, or irregularities that may need to be surgically corrected.
17. Increasing Expenses
People who smoke after lip fillers may have greater overall expenditure because of the fillers' rapid breakdown, increased risk of problems, and potential need for remedial therapies. Therefore, smoking may be an expensive habit due to the necessity for repeated touch-ups, further medical treatments, and potentially even corrective surgeries.
Tips for Caring for Your Lips After Fillers
After receiving lip fillers, care for your lips during the healing process to avoid damage by following these important aftercare tips:
Maintain Hydration
Maintaining hydration is essential for keeping your lips and skin moisturized after filling your lips.
Apply Ice Packs
Applying something cold on your lips after the injections will soothe your lips from any pain and swelling.
Steer clear of heat
Ensure you avoid saunas, spas and smoking after lip fillers for they will expose your lips to high temperatures and cause bruising.
Refrain From Kissing and Using Straws
For the first few days, stay away from straws and activities that require you to pucker your lips. Puckering may exert pressure on the filler, causing it to move and thus producing inconsistent outcomes.
Pay attention to what your practitioner says
You will be given guidelines on the postoperative care; these should be followed as soon as possible to enhance the results of the surgery.
How Long Should You Wait to Smoke After Lip Fillers?
Avoid smoking for at least a day or two to lower the risk of complications and kickstarts the early healing process. It's crucial to remember that your outcomes will be better the longer you can avoid smoking.
After the procedure, you should try to avoid smoking for at least 48 to 72 hours. This will allow the fillers to settle evenly and your lips to recover adequately.
Tips for Quitting Smoking
If you smoke and are thinking about getting lip fillers, this could be the best moment for you to stop. Here are some pointers to get you going:
Treatment with Nicotine Replacement
Lozenges, gum, and patches are examples of nicotine replacement treatments that can help you manage withdrawal symptoms by giving you a controlled dose of nicotine without the negative side effects of smoking. These products can lessen cigarette cravings and facilitate a more manageable stop.
Guidance
A tried-and-true strategy for helping people stop smoking is behavioral counseling. You can learn coping mechanisms from a counselor to deal with stress, cravings, and the psychological effects of smoking addiction. When nicotine replacement medication and counseling are used together, the likelihood of successfully quitting increases dramatically.
Support Teams
Whether it's an online or in-person group, joining one might provide you the accountability and support you need to stop smoking. It can be encouraging and comforting to share your experiences with those who are also attempting to stop smoking.
Stay Busy
Being occupied with tasks involving your hands and thoughts can help you avoid cravings. To take your mind off smoking, engage in hobbies, physical activity, or socializing with loved ones.
Avoid triggers
Determine which routines or circumstances make you want to smoke and make an effort to avoid them. To disrupt the link, try something different, such as taking a walk or chewing gum, if you usually smoke after meals.
Conclusion
Lip fillers are an attractive and well liked procedure. But how you care after the filling highly determines your healing and lasting time. For instance, smoking has detrimental effects that can affect the outcome of your surgery, it is imperative that you abstain from smoking for as long as possible following your procedure.
Smoking can have unfavorable effects such as infection, slowed healing, and inconsistent outcomes. Smokers are therefore strongly encouraged to take the appropriate safety measures to safeguard their investment in their looks.
In addition to helping you stop smoking, they may offer you individualized guidance and support to get the most out of your lip fillers. Putting your health first and following the advice in this blog will enable you to have a gorgeous, long-lasting pout.
Be Aware of the Risks Before You Light Up to Preserve Your Perfect Pout!
Your safety and beauty are our first objectives at Diaminy Aesthetics. Therefore, for optimal results, make sure you refrain from smoking during your aftercare. To find out more about keeping your flawless pout, get in touch with us right now!
