# Oral surgery stitches? How long to dissolve?



## Guest (Oct 23, 2008)

We have a dog here for obedience training. She had a tooth extracted two weeks prior to arrival and has now been here for about 10 days. 

Her stitches at the extraction site appear to be completely intact. I talked to her owner tonight about it. He called the vet and they said they were dissolvable...

I've never had a dog with stitches in their mouth, so I'm not familiar with it, but I think they should have dissolved or at least look like they're going to by now??

I just don't want a secondary infection from any irritation in the event they aren't going to dissolve...

Thanks.

-K


----------



## RJG (Feb 18, 2005)

Hi Kristie,

As an OR nurse, I am more familiar with human stitches rather than dog stitches. Human stitches that dissolve do so at different rates depending the material of the suture - some around 6 weeks, some 6 months. 

My GUESS is that the oral stitches will dissolve in about 6 weeks or more. That doesn't mean that the wound isn't healing, but the slow dissolving protects the area. Since the mouth is a pretty dirty area, the vet may not want the sutures to dissolve until it is pretty well healed in order to decrease the chance of infection. 

Unless you see increasing tenderness, inflammation or other signs like that, I think your dog is most likely ok and on the mend.

That's my guess anyway.


----------



## firehouselabs (Jan 23, 2008)

When we place stitches in our patients mouths (human) we do not use the dissolvable ones- two reasons, first: though the mouth is a VERY dirty place, it is also an extremely fast healer. Second: when the stitches come out in a week to ten days, tops, we get a chance to see the area and check for signs of infection. 
Instead of checking the state of the suture material, check the surrounding tissue. It should look no darker then other parts of the mucosa (gums), if it is not "puckered" or still oozing blood (I don't know why it would still) then it would most likely be OK to remove them. If left in too long, the sutures themselves lead to irritation and infection. However, the vet may be just making sure that dry socket does not occur. Again though, the tissue at this point should be healed enough to remove the suture. There will be an obvious indent where the root was (unless it was a baby tooth and is now occupied with a permanent tooth) which will fill in over the next 6-9 months. 
If in doubt, get the number to the owners vet and see what he/she had in mind about the situation.


----------



## Guest (Oct 23, 2008)

Thanks for the info... One site is a little angry looking. I'll take a look again tomorrow... That's what I'm worried about -- that they'll stay in too long and pinch the tissue and cause a problem... I can pull them if they can come out, but I want the go ahead. I'm just not used to having sutures stay in more than 7-10 days... Just makes me nervous, but again I have no experience with sutures in the mouth. 

Thanks again.

-K


----------



## Pepper Dawg (Sep 26, 2007)

Kristie, I have placed thousands of sutures in the human mouth. I have used both silk and gut. I remove the silk in 7-10 days and the gut resorbs in about the same amount of time. If the "gum" tissue in the dogs mouth is red and inflammed looking or the dog is in noticeable pain I would get him into the vet immediately. If not, I would still get him in at your convienience as I can't imagine why the sutures are still in place after 24 days if they are resorbable. As was previously mentioned the soft tissue of the mouth heals very quickly. The longer they are left in place the greater the risk of infection.


----------

