There is no scientifically proven study that has directly demonstrated faster dissolving of dissolvable stitches in the mouth. However, based on extrapolations and inferences from how absorbable sutures work, I believe that pineapple juice may be the answer.
Drinking pineapple juice may potentially help accelerate the dissolution of stitches in your mouth but only if they're made of catgut. It won't work on the other types of absorbable materials but luckily for you, chromic gut is the most commonly used wisdom tooth removal.
How to make dissolvable stitches dissolve faster
Yes, drinking pineapple juice can potentially make those dissolvable stitches dissolve faster in your mouth. It is that simple but before I explain how this can potentially work, here is how to do it.
How to do it:
Drink 8oz of pineapple juice.
Repeat for 7 days or until the sutures fall out.
Note: Please do NOT do this on the day of your surgery. You should start about 2-3 days after the stitches have been in. The reason is because you don't want the stitches coming out too soon. We'll explain in more detail in a later section.
How pineapple juice may accelerate suture dissolution
Pineapples may potentially be able to dissolve your dissolvable stitches faster than normal due to two reasons.
How it accelerates dissolution:
Self-dissolving sutures will naturally get degraded by our body's enzymes.
Pineapples contain a proteolytic enzyme called bromelain which is often used to tenderize meat.
Dissolvable stitches get enzymatically degraded
One of the most common resorbable sutures is catgut (gut) which is made of the intestinal linings of ruminant animals (cows, sheeps, goats). Therefore it is all natural since it is literally no different than"food".
Food is naturally broken down by enzymes before it gets absorbed by our body. Since humans eat animal intestines, we already know that it can be enzymatically degraded.
Catgut was found to be prone to rapid proteolytic digestion while in the gastrointestinal tract.
Although vicryl sutures appeared to be more resistant to enzymatic degradation since it is synthetic and not made of animal intestines.
Since catgut is susceptible to proteolytic digestion, our reasoning is why not supplement our diet with some extra enzymes. Theoretically that should aid in the sutures to resorb more quickly and you know what is chock full of protelytic enzymes right? Pineapple juice.
Pineapples contain bromelain (proteolytic enzyme)
Pineapples are known to contain bromelain, which consists of a group of proteolytic enzymes. It is essentially a complex combination of multiple endopeptidases of thiol and other compounds derived from the pineapple fruit, stem, or root.
Due to its potent enzymes, pineapples have been traditionally used to tenderize meat. If you're no stranger to the kitchen, you've probably used it before as a marinade to make your meat softer. This is a scientifically proven effect.
If you have any doubts, ask around of your friends who are cooking aficionados to see if they've used pineapples in such a fashion. We're sure you'll find at least a couple of people who can vouch for its tenderizing effect.
In summary, if you consume this tropical fruit or drink its juice, you can give your body an extra boost of proteolytic enzymes. Perhaps it can speed up the resorption of your self-dissolving stitches.
What to watch out for
We would caution about potentially trying this home remedy on the day of your surgery for when you got the stitches. Research has shown that bromelain does have an effect on your ability to form a blood clot.
Effects of bromelain on blood clotting:
Low concentrations of bromelain have a procoagulation effect.
High concentrations of bromelain have an anticoagulant effect.
That means it has a dual effect and your blood clotting could either be worse or better depending on how much bromelain you take. It is very sensitive to the concentration of how much you take.
Due to the risk of it possibly going awry, we could recommend against consuming pineapples and its juice on the day that you get the sutures. It would be safer to do it two days after when the clot has stabilized. This is the main reason why pineapple juice after wisdom teeth isn't the best idea.
Benefits to trying pineapple juice
Aside from the potential to help make the stitches dissolve faster, there are other post-surgical benefits to ingesting bromelain. Drinking pineapple juice can reduce swelling and inflammation after surgeries.
How much faster will the stitches dissolve?
Unfortunately if you try drinking pineapple juice or eating the fruit, we do not know how much faster the stitches can dissolve. In fact, it is not certain that it would expedite the process at all since it has never been proven in an actual experiment.
Once again, this home remedy is simply a theory that we formulated by extrapolating existing data. It seems like it should work but we can't say definitively until the writing is on the wall.
Therefore if you were to try this, it would be at your own risk. Just make sure that you're not allergic to pineapples because if you were, you shouldn't do this! Also consult your doctor to make sure you're okay to have pineapples after whatever procedure you had done.
Are there any alternatives?
In lieu of using pineapples, we would say that any other foods which have meat tenderizing properties may potentially work as well.
Here are some kitchen recipes which may help:
Kiwi
Papaya
Pineapple
Asian pears
Feel free to give any of them a try! Just make sure you're not allergic to any of them.
Takeaway
Despite there not being any proven scientific studies on how to make dissolvable stitches dissolve faster, you can give pineapple juice a try. Some of the dissolvable stitches are susceptible to proteolytic enzyme degradation such as catgut sutures.
It's worth a try since it is fairly low risk. After all you're just eating a fruit. If it doesn't work you're really not missing out on much at all. If it does work the stitches will come out quicker.
If you're to try this, do it about 2-3 days after you've had the stitches. You don't want to weaken them while they're still needed, which is to help your wound heal. If you make the stitches fall out too soon you may need to return to your doctor and have them replaced! That would defeat the purpose wouldn't it?
