When Will the Stitches Come out After Blepharoplasty?

A variety of suture techniques are utilized to close blepharoplasty incisions. Depending upon the method utilized, suture removal varies from patient to patient.When non-absorbable sutures are used, they're generally removed between four to seven days following surgery. Some variation occurs because of the wound healing process. It's important to remove eyelid sutures as soon as possible to avoid cross hatching scars.Theoretically, absorbable sutures don't require removal, but it's not unusual for suture remnants to stick around for prolonged periods of time. It's, therefore, reasonable to start removing these remnants after the first week.If you have questions regarding suture removal, it's important to consult your plastic surgeon. Your surgeon should be able to answer your questions and reassure you.

Thank you for your question, because it is often the concern of many patients. There is a balance between taking the stitches out early, for better scar appearance and leaving them in longer for prevention of accidental reopening. I find 5-7 days to be best for overall safety and appearance. Sunglasses should be warn as well to prevent hyperpigmentation of the scars.

DearFlirtbud,
Generally, it is a good idea to get the stitches out as soon as the tissues will support their removal. This is generally about day 4 for the type of surgery you are describing. One of the reasons I do not favor using the CO2 laser to make skin incisions is that the laser thermally injures the skin at the edge of the wound. This means that it is often necessary to wait 10 days or more before the tissues will support the removal of the sutures. Some doctors use a quickly dissolving suture material to close the eyelid skin after surgery. In principle, the stitches should dissolve in the first week, but often they don't and need to be removed.
I would recommend that you contact your surgeon and find out when the stitches are coming out.

Sutures can be either dissolvable or the kind that need to be removed. If they are the kind that need to be removed, they need to be removed five to seven days after the surgery. The dissolvable kind typically disappear at day 5 to 7 post blepharoplasty. There are usually no sutures placed on the lower blepharoplasty surgery. The tissue glue is used to close the lower lid pinched skin, and the transconjunctival removal on the inside of the eyelid requires no sutures.

We will remove some sutures as early as 5-7 days but will leave some in as long as 14 days if they are in the heavier skin on the outside portion of the eyelids. This prevents accidental incision disruption by rubbing eyes at night or rolling on this part of the incision. Dissolvable sutures are not removed as long as they are fast absorbing.

I tend to remove most eyelid sutures within five to seven days of surgery. There is some variation however which may affect this decision. The type of suture and the conditions in which the sutures were placed also plays a vital role in how long they are left in. Some surgeons will use a fast absorbing suture, which tends to break down and fallout within a week or so. These to not require removal.
Other times, nylon sutures will be used. In this situation, they need to be removed generally within one week. The exact length of time that you're sutures will be left than is up to your surgeon and I would encourage you to discuss any concerns that he may have.

It is a well accepted principle in plastic surgery that if you don't want sutures to leave those "track marks" then the sutures must be removed no later than 5 days after surgery. Track marks happen when the skins epidermal layer grows down into the hole made by the suture. I use fast desolving sutures that are usually gone by 5 days. If not I remove them. The good thing is that the eyelids are the best scarring area of the body.

It is thought that eyelid skin has the propensity to grow faster than other areas, which can lead to skin growing into the tract that the sutures take. This can lead to skin being embedded within the deeper layers of the skin and eventually cysts within the suture line. Hence, many doctors prefer to remove sutures from the eyelid earlier than later.
Some doctors prefer to remove the eyelid sutures 3-4 days later. Others prefer to wait longer and take them out 5-6 days after the procedure to prevent the incision from opening up. So, the balance is cyst formation on one end and opening of the incision on the other end. Other issues include that when the sutures are in longer there is more chance of scarring and creation of train track type of appearance.

Sone doctors do not use stitches but use a sort of topical glue. Most of the time, if you want to avoid the suture track marks you should remove sutures within 3-5 days. When little to no tension in the skin is present, I may remove the sutures within 1-2 days. Using fine sutures will leave less of a mark and may be left in longer as can sutures that are pull-outs that are beneath the skin and have only puncture marks at the ends.