Pulled Dissolvable Stitch out After Rhinoplasty

Hi Denver gal,
As one of my fellow residents in training used to say, "NTW". Not to worry. The stitches could be removed after 5-7 days without affecting the outcome of your rhinoplasty. The time that dissolvable sutures take to dissolve varies depending upon the moisture, between 10 to 21 days. Do not pull too vigorously on anything else though.
My fellow resident also was fond of saying, "Jacuzzi to me Stat!” which sounds like a good idea for me right about now.
Be well and enjoy your new nose.
Dr. P

In my practice, I advise patients to never put anything inside their nostrils to clean their noses. Instead, I have developed a detailed protocol as to how to use water effectively clean the nose without disturbing tissue or sutures. Nonetheless, if you have pulled a dissolvable suture, the likelihood of your doing permanent damage is slight, as the sutures usually need to remain for a week or so for the skin and mucosa to heal, and are generally no longer needed after that. They usually dissolve on their own after about 2-3 weeks. As a specialist in rhinoplasty surgery, I often remove or trim these sutures during patients’ follow-up visits. If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your surgeon to discuss your questions and concerns. That’s what we are here for!

great question. Fortunately, this is not something to worry about. We use dissolvable sutures inside the nose so that they can fall out and be dissolved on their own, and after a few days, the skin or mucosa around them is strong enough to stay together and continue healing, so even if you pull one out by mistake, it should not affect the outcome. That being said I don't recommend doing any further cleaning inside your nose until you see your surgeon and he or she makes sure that everything is going well. Your surgeon will give you further postoperative care instructions.

regarding the length of suture dissolvability, it depends on the suture. Most commonly I like to use chromic sutures inside the nose, and these dissolve and fall off around 2-3 weeks after surgery. hope this helps!
-David Mattos, Harvard-trained plastic surgeon