Your family is active, healthy, and accidents can happen. No matter how many precautions you have taken to prevent sports injuries or to teach your children not to run with sharp objects, at some point, your child may need stitches. Familiar places kids need stitches are usually on their face, chin, hands, or feet. Stitches join the open wound together, similar to threads in clothes. Stitches bind the skin together so the wound can heal. Once healed, the stitches can be removed or, depending on the location, may dissolve on their own. KidKutsMD™ mobile app offers families a concierge service to access pediatric plastic surgery care and avoid the anxious and endless hours of waiting in an emergency room.
If your child experiences an injury where the cut punctures or tears the skin, it is best to seek treatment at the nearest emergency room or call 911.
Other injury characteristics requiring stitches may include cuts that are gaping, open, and be more than a half-inch in length. Additionally, if the injury is in a cosmetically sensitive area such as the forehead, above or below the eyes, cheek, or chin. In that case, stitches may be needed by a board-certified or board-eligible pediatric plastic surgeon in Dallas to minimize the appearance of a scar.
The technique used to close your child’s injury will vary depending on the severity of the wound. However, traditional methods of closing a minor facial injury include the following:
Commonly used for cuts in the scalp or within the hairline, staples are a quick and efficient way to close a cut.
Skin glue is an ideal choice for clean, straight cuts. The process is quick and painless. However, it cannot be used to close a wound if there is any tension from the muscle because skin glue is not as strong as stitches.
Also known as butterfly bandage closures, steri-strips are thin adhesive strips placed over the cut and offer a bit of tension to keep the wound closed.
Dallas stitches for kids provide the most strength to close a wound. However, there may be pain involved while having the stitches applied and removed. Absorbable sutures are another option that does not require the sutures to be removed and typically dissolve within two weeks, depending on the location.
Most cuts heal well, but scarring is part of the healing process, which may take months or years for the scar to fade.
Pediatric plastic surgeons recommend that facial cuts be repaired with simple interrupted sutures. Depending on the area of the face, the suture size and needle are determined for optimal healing. In some cases, medical issues may arise with scarring. Hypertrophic scars may appear pink, red, or purple in appearance but do not extend beyond the initial injury size. Keloid scars are scars raised significantly above the skin’s surface, can become quite large, and often extend beyond the border of the initial wound.
Eliminate the need for ER waiting rooms and ensure rapid specialty care for your child due to facial injury lacerations, dog bites, sports-related injuries, kitchen accidents, etc. Receive the best chance for optimal cosmetic results for your child by downloading the KidKutsMD™ mobile app (available for iOS only) today.
Our affiliated facilities for surgery include Medical City Frisco, Medical City Dallas Children's Hospital. All KidKuts patients can be seen and treated at Advance ER Dallas and Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute when appropriate. Additionally, we partner with a medspa and treatment facility, EpiCentre Skin Care, and Laser Centers located in Dallas.
Our doctors provide outstanding plastic corrective surgery for infants and children, as well as cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery for adults. The mission of our KidKutsMD™ and KidEarsMD™ providers is to offer compassionate, efficient, and timely emergency concierge plastic surgery when and where you need it.
For more information, call 855-KID-KUTS to speak with our Patient Care Coordinators or email [email protected].
KidKutsMD™ and our associated mobile apps are a concierge service for non-emergencies only. If you or your child are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department for immediate evaluation.
The concierge plastic surgery app for children’s cuts and scars
Phone: (855) 543-5887
Fax: (866) 488-8475
