Follow-up

Removal of your stitches is usually done at your doctor's office after 4-14 days.

• Facial stitches may be removed after four days and no later than seven days, because healing occurs faster in this location of the body, and additional scarring from the stitches is a bigger concern.
  
  
• Sutures in your hand may be left in 14 or more days because of slower healing and greater tension on the wound.
  
  
• The doctor who placed the stitches will often recommend the number of days before this follow-up.

Be gentle with a healing cut for the first six weeks. It takes that long for a wound to achieve about 80% of its final healed strength.