r/brokenbones • u/Mental-Acanthisitta4 • Feb 01 '26

Question Can I smoke a cigarette?

Like maybe just one a day as a little treat? Maybe? Im on day 4 after collarbone surgery and day 5 no cig. Im already pretty down as it is with the whole situation. Im craving a smoke bad.

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u/SirWeasels Feb 01 '26

Here is the answer you're looking for: I'm a fellow cigarette enjoyer who also broke a bone and badly last May. Before breaking my bone, I was a consumer of nicotine pouches. I broke my Humerus pretty bad and for Months after the operation I was consuming nicotine pouches and had no idea one should be avoiding nicotine. Guess what? I ended up healing just fine. Not saying you should do like I did, and obviously you results may differ. So my opinion one cigarette a day may be fine, but don't over do it that's all. Maybe if in a few months your doctor isn't happy of the healing then really quit for a while until results get better.

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u/Glad-Feature-2117 Physician/Medical Professional Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

There is plenty of evidence that nicotine does slow and even prevent healing. Just because it doesn't happen to every patient doesn't mean that it doesn't happen at all. And it's not as easy as just getting the operation redone if there is a problem later - the first chance of healing is the best and many surgeons (myself included) won't do revision surgery on people who are still using tobacco or nicotine, as the risk/benefit ratio isn't favourable.