Despite their importance to the healing process after certain procedures, dental stitches can be notoriously delicate. When placing stitches, your dentist will tell you how long they need to remain in place. It's natural to be concerned when these stitches loosen or fall out well ahead of schedule, but is it a dental emergency?
A Challenging Environment for Stitches
Stitches in your mouth are up against a challenge. They remain damp and are placed in an area subject to constant movement and pressure (your jaw). The stitches are applied to inflamed tissues, meaning that some loosening is to be expected as the inflammation subsides. This loosening can easily lead to premature loss.
Stabilisation During Initial Healing
Premature loss isn't necessarily a problem. Stitches help to stabilise your gum tissues during initial healing, holding the two edges of your dentist's incision together until the wound heals sufficiently so that the tissues remain together without assistance. This means that the importance of your stitches diminishes with each passing day. Your dentist may also have used absorbable stitches, meaning that they've disappeared because they've been resorbed, which is precisely what they were supposed to do.
Contact Your Dentist for Advice
It's wise to contact your dentist in the event of the premature loss of your stitches. Depending on when the stitches were placed, along with any complications or discomfort you might be experiencing, they may instruct you to return to the dental clinic so that the stitches can be reapplied. They might also inform you that the stitches remained in place for an adequate amount of time to do their job, and no reapplication is necessary.
When Immediate Intervention Is Needed
So in most cases, the premature loss of stitches is not an urgent matter. However, it's possible for stitches to be lost shortly after placement, which can require intervention. If the stitches were improperly placed or you inadvertently aggravated them (such as being overly optimistic about the foods it's safe to eat, or using your teeth to open a package), then the stitches could be wrenched out of place. When there's pain, excessive bleeding, and the underlying bone is exposed, then you may require emergency dentistry to stabilise the wound. If your regular dentist is unavailable, contact an after-hours emergency dentist.
Dental stitches don't require a prolonged period of time to fulfil their duties, which is why early loss generally won't affect the healing process. But when the stitches are lost shortly after placement and result in pain and bleeding, then you need to seek emergency dentistry.
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