Staple removal--12 days? Longer?

[aceman]

So after second procedure at H&W the instructions say remove the staples 12 to 14 days. Well I am at day 9 and obviously want these staples out (what a shock, heh! ). How do you know if 12 days is enough? Is there some way to tell? I will have my wife removing them (she did it the first time with no issues). But I was reading recommendations of leaving them in up to 20 days and removing half at 10 days.

[Thehairupthere]

12 days should be fine, in many cases 10 days is enough. I always recommend you see a professional just in case there is an infection so they can instantly recognize that, but as long as it looks clean, not inflamed or irritated then it should be fine to remove. If you're not sure then you should just go see your local physician.

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

If things were tight they would have told you to wait a longer period of time before removing staples. you could take every other staple out at day 12 and wait 1-2 days before taking out the rest.

[aceman]

Thanks for the responses--the area looks really good --at least as far as my wife can tell and she removed the staples last time. I'll remove them at 12 days (but on the night of the 12th day) which means 12.5 days basically, or perhaps even go 14 days--they are not bothering me at all (much! ). Any disadvantage to waiting 14 days as opposed to 12?

[Dr. Glenn Charles]

No big difference between 12 and 14 days. However, when you start wait any longer than 2 weeks the skin starts to grow over the staples and it can become more difficult and painful to remove them.

[gillenator]

I had this happen in my last procedure where some of my scalp tissue grew over several of my staples. One of them got more buried and not discovered until weeks later. And no anestesia when my PCP removed it!

 

There is a hand held tool to remove the staples and looks much like one used for paper staples. It can make all of the difference using this tool and minimizing discomfort.