Precautions after intraoral sutures

Any serious wound will require stitches, even if it occurs inside the mouth. Sutures inside the mouth are very different from those in other parts of the body. After all, the environment is there and the inconvenience caused is more obvious. Because oral stitches are special, precautions are what patients are most concerned about, and they hope to recover as soon as possible. So, what are the precautions after having stitches in the mouth? Let’s take a closer look below.

(1) The wound edges on both sides are neat and of equal length. If the wound edges are uneven, or the two sutured edges are of different lengths, they should be trimmed appropriately with a blade or scissors until the wound can be relatively closed without wrinkles. If the length difference is too large to be trimmed, the wound can be sutured first. Finally, a triangular incision can be made at the end of the wound where there is a wrinkle, and the excess tissue can be cut off and sutured.

(2) The depth of the suture needle entering the tissue should be equal on both sides. If the depth is different, after tying the knot, the deep side will be higher than the shallow side, making the suture surface uneven.

(3) The distance between the needle insertion point and the wound edge should be equal to the distance between the needle exit point and the wound edge.

(4) The suture should not be too tight to prevent the suture edges from turning inward. Instead, the two edges should be slightly turned outward.

(5) The distance between each suture is generally 5 mm. The distance between sutures in the oral mucosa should be closer, with one suture every 2 to 3 mm.

(6) There may be tiny cracks in the tissue between the sutures, allowing a small amount of exudate to be discharged.

(7) If the wound is turned inward, use toothed tissue forceps to clamp the wound edges on both sides and adjust the wound surface to make it slightly turned outward.