Having plastic surgery can be very exciting. However, as the age-old saying goes, beauty is pain. The recovery process after plastic surgery can be extensive and painful, lasting a few weeks, months, and even years. Often it involves pain management, emptying drains, changing wound dressings, applying heat/cold packs, or compression garments.

Fortunately, by including Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in your aftercare, you can significantly expedite and ease the healing process and shorten the recuperation time. HBOT accelerates healing in patients undergoing face lifts, liposuction, laser skin resurfacing, chemical peels, tummy tucks, breast reduction or augmentation and many other procedures. HBOT can reduce post-surgical bruising, swelling, and inflammation, and speed up healing and recovery by up to 75%.

How does HBOT work?

Patients who receive HBOT at our facility breathe pure oxygen in specially designed FDA-approved transparent chambers at air pressure levels 1.5 to 3 times higher than atmospheric pressure. By allowing a patient to breathe 100 percent oxygen while in a pressurized chamber, HBOT works to fill the blood with enough oxygen and to repair tissues, bringing oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen. This allows for natural healing to take place.

When swelling occurs, the damaged cells become deprived of oxygen and tissues start to die. HBOT reduces swelling while flooding the tissues with oxygen. Wounds have low oxygen levels within them, and only hyperbaric oxygen can significantly increase these levels again. HBOT promotes oxygen diffusion into tissue, decreasing the number of inflammatory cells and allowing the growth of new blood vessels. It suppresses unnecessary inflammation and speeds up wound healing.

How is HBOT beneficial for recovery following plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures?

Proper healing and recovery are critical to the success of plastic and reconstructive surgery procedures. By exposing your body to 100% pure oxygen under pressure, you are exposing the treated areas with at least 10–15 times the normal supply of oxygen, which accelerates the natural healing process by roughly 75%. The high pressure dissolves the oxygen into your bloodstream, allowing a higher concentration of oxygen to penetrate the tissue that needs to heal. HBOT also increases collagen production and delivers oxygen to wounded tissues, which are otherwise oxygen-starved due to swelling and bruising. HBOT can significantly reduce post-surgical swelling, bruising, inflammation, minimize the appearance of scars, and greatly reduce pain, minimizing the need for painkillers. The results can be truly dramatic! In some cases, HBOT treatment can relieve your symptoms after surgery altogether.

Who can benefit from HBOT after plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures?

The short answer is that everyone can benefit from HBOT. However, there are some patients who are more likely to face complications after surgery. For example, smokers are more likely to experience side effects, such as higher infection rates, higher wound healing problems, and open wounds. Hyperbaric oxygen counteracts these side effects. Therefore, smokers, people who have diabetes or other medical issues, people who have had prior radiation, people who are overweight, or anyone else with poor healing wounds or complications after surgery can benefit the most. The results can be extraordinary for patients who would otherwise face complications. Hyperbaric oxygen can be prescribed before and/or after surgery.

What are the top benefits of combining HBOT with plastic surgery?

  • HBOT superdrives the healing and recovery by up to 75%
  • HBOT minimizes scars due to collagen production
  • HBOT reduces pain
  • HBOT reduces bruising, swelling, and inflammation

  • HBOT improves infection fighting

  • HBOT counteracts the side effects in poor healing patients

  • HBOT provides a wellness boost
  • HBOT decreases the need for post-procedure pain pills