Who is trained to remove stitches?

Q: My 3-year-old daughter met with an accident and cut her forehead. This was treated with 6 stitches in an emergency room hospital. Should we go to a plastic surgeon to get them removed or just our family doctor? We were told to get them removed within 5 days. How should I treat the cut after the stitches are removed?

A:Stitch removal is not a difficult task and can be done by your family physician if he can handle children 3 year old. Five days is the usual time when these are removed. Usually one follows this up by supporting the wound edges by a sticky tape that come by the name Ethistrips (Johnson & Johnson) or Proxistrips. These need to be used for an additional week. No special care needs to be taken besides this.