There is a lot written about the detrimental effects of smoking. The general advice is not to start smoking or vaping and to try to give up as early as possible in life, to prevent long-term complications. Your healthcare professionals will ask you to give up smoking or vaping during the lead up to surgery because of the damage it does to the blood supply in your mouth and elsewhere. This in turn affects recovery and healing after an operation and seriously increases the risk of complications.

Smoking can:

• Increase your heart rate and put it under severe strain
• Decrease your oxygen uptake and therefore increase breathlessness
• Increase your blood pressure
• Introduce poisons into your body
• Damage your arteries
• Increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. In general, people who smoke cigarettes have about twice as great a risk of a heart attack as people who don't
• Be associated with the formation of blood clots in the coronary arteries, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and different types of cancer such as lung, mouth and stomach cancer.
• Affect the health and strength  of your gums and teeth 

You can get information and support about giving up smoking here. If you have used or are using recreational drugs, illegal or legal highs, these too can have a negative impact on your health. While many aspects will be the same for those without an underlying health condition, drug use can increase your risk of developing problems during and after surgery. Your cleft team are there to provide support and help you manage any drug use.