How Smoking Affects Your Skin

Smoking, aside from being a habit tagged with numerous internal health risks, has a large effect on one’s skin, both facial and elsewhere on the body. Typically, individuals who smoke a lot, or who have been smoking for a long time, will have specific facial features and a particular skin tone that tips others off of his or her smoking habit.

What happens to your face when you smoke?

Chemically, cigarette smoke affects the oxygen molecules present in the air around the individual as well as the molecule count inside the individual’s blood stream. Both of these effects reduce the amount of oxygen that is delivered to the skin, making it more susceptible to damage and causing it to look older.

Physically, the habits performed by smokers cause the skin to change, as well. Constant puckering of the lips around the cigarette will cause the individual to develop wrinkles around his or her mouth. The repeated sucking motion will also create sallow-looking cheeks in the smoker. Also, squinting one’s eyes in order to keep the smoke out will create wrinkles around them.

Effects on other areas of the body

Smoking can cause discoloration in other areas of one’s body, as well. Discolored fingertips and fingernails are often results of long-term smoking. Yellowed and otherwise discolored teeth are often features of smokers, as well. Obviously, the smoke from cigarettes gives the user an unnatural and undesirable look.

Contact Us

If you are a smoker and are unhappy with how your skin looks, Dr. Apostolakis can help you feel and look rejuvenated. Please contact the office of Austin facial plastic surgeon Dr. Louis Apostolakis at 512-329-8899 to set up your appointment today.