Stitches, also commonly called sutures, are used to put tissues back together after oral surgery or any complicated tooth extraction. There are two kinds of stitches, those which are absorbable (or dissolvable) and will break down harmlessly in the body over time, and those that are non-absorbable (or non-dissolvable) and must be manually removed by the surgeon.

There are also different kinds of absorbable sutures, made with different materials. Therefore, after you have had your wisdom teeth removed, or after any kind of oral surgery, absorbable sutures might take from a few days to a few weeks to dissolve completely.