Laceration repair is the medical cleaning and closing of a cut that goes deeper than the surface of the skin. Dr.STITCH is the 24 hour on-call service of New York Plastic Surgical Group, connecting families across Long Island, Queens, and NYC with an experienced plastic surgeon at the time of an injury. Because the surgeon closing the wound is trained in techniques that help minimize scarring, the repair is done with the eventual appearance of the scar in mind. For any life-threatening injury, call 911 first.
A deep cut can happen in an instant, to anyone in the family. It happens fast, and rarely at a convenient hour. A knife slips during dinner prep, a toddler catches the coffee table with her chin, a bike ride ends on the pavement. Dr.STITCH exists for that moment. Families across Long Island, Queens, and NYC can reach an on-call plastic surgeon from New York Plastic Surgical Group 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at a nearby hospital or at one of our offices. Our approach is calm, unhurried, and focused on closing the wound well the first time.
What Is Laceration Repair?
A laceration is a cut or tear in the skin, and often in the fat, muscle, tendon, or nerve underneath. Unlike a clean surgical incision, it usually has ragged edges and may carry dirt or bacteria from whatever caused it.
Laceration repair means controlling the bleeding, checking what has been injured below the surface, cleaning the wound, and bringing the edges back together so the body heals them as one. Closure can be done with stitches, skin glue, closure strips, or staples, depending on where the cut is, how deep it goes, and how much tension the skin is under. That choice matters, because the way a wound is closed influences how the scar looks years later.
Does My Cut Need Stitches?
Most small scrapes heal on their own with a bandage. Call for professional care when a cut:
- Keeps bleeding after 10 to 15 minutes of firm, steady pressure
- Gapes open, or the edges will not stay together on their own
- Is deep enough to show yellow fatty tissue or anything below the skin
- Sits on the face, near the lip border, eyelid, or nostril
- Crosses a joint, like an elbow or knee
- Came from a bite, or from something dirty or rusty
- Holds grit or an object you cannot rinse away, which you should never pull out
- Causes numbness, weakness, or trouble moving nearby
Any of these signs are worth a call. An injury can look minor on the surface but involve more damage underneath than it first appears, so it’s better to have it checked than wait and see.
What Should I Do Right After a Cut Happens?
Stay calm, especially if the injury is your child’s. Then:
- Wash your hands before touching the wound.
- Apply steady pressure with a clean cloth or gauze. Do not keep lifting it to peek.
- Rinse under running water. Tap water is just as safe as saline for cleaning a wound before it’s closed, according to a 625-patient clinical trial. Skip hydrogen peroxide, which irritates healing tissue.
- Cover it loosely and keep it elevated.
- Call us before you go anywhere.
Bring your vaccination history if you have it. CDC wound guidance calls for a tetanus booster after a dirty or contaminated wound if it’s been 5 or more years since your last shot, and after a clean, minor wound if it’s been 10 or more years.
Why Call a Plastic Surgeon Before Heading to the ER?
Emergency room and urgent care clinicians are skilled at closing wounds, and for a straightforward cut in a hidden spot, that care is entirely appropriate. The difference is one of priority. An emergency department is built to stop bleeding, rule out serious injury, and move safely to the next patient. A plastic surgeon’s training centers on how tissue heals and how a closure will look once it has.
That matters most when the cut is on a face, when it crosses a landmark like a lip line or eyebrow, when the edges are jagged or tissue is missing, when nerve or tendon involvement is possible, or when the patient is a young child. It matters practically, too. Calling first often means being seen sooner, in a quieter setting, by a surgeon who is expecting you.
How Does a Plastic Surgeon Repair a Laceration?
After numbing the area, your surgeon cleans the wound thoroughly and checks for any damage to the nerves, tendons, or blood vessels underneath. Ragged or crushed edges may be gently trimmed so the two sides meet cleanly. Alignment comes next, and it’s something patients rarely think about: lining up the edge of a lip, eyebrow, or hairline exactly, since even the smallest mismatch would be noticeable once it heals.
Your surgeon then chooses how to close the wound based on what it actually needs, not a one-size-fits-all approach. Deeper wounds under tension are often closed in layers, so the top stitches aren’t doing all the work. For smaller facial cuts where the edges naturally sit close together, a facial-cut study found that simpler, single-layer stitching healed just as well as a more involved layered closure. For children, dissolvable stitches can mean skipping a second visit just for removal. In a caregiver comparison study, parents tended to prefer how those healed. The doctors reviewing the scars in photos didn’t rate the two as exactly equal, but the difference was small. Complex facial wounds are handled as facial trauma rather than as simple cuts.
How Do I Care for My Stitches and Minimize Scarring?
Follow the instructions your surgeon gives you, since they vary by wound location. In general, keep the area clean, follow the guidance about when the dressing can get wet, and avoid straining the repair. Call us if you notice spreading redness, increasing pain, warmth, drainage, or fever.
Scar care begins once the wound closes. Sun protection helps limit lasting discoloration, and a systematic review of 34 trials found silicone gel improves scars while evidence for vitamin E, onion extract, and similar products remains weak. Our post procedure care guidelines cover our scar treatment program, and scar cream is available through our sister brand. Every wound heals differently and no one can promise a scar will disappear, but careful closure and consistent aftercare give it the best chance to fade.
Why Do Long Island, Queens, and NYC Families Choose Dr.STITCH?
Dr.STITCH is the on-call service of New York Plastic Surgical Group, which has cared for this region since 1948. That is 75+ years, more than 200 years of combined surgical experience, and more than half a million patients treated.
The service is staffed by 20+ experienced plastic surgeons of NYPS Group, practicing across 10+ office and hospital locations in Long Island, Queens, and NYC. Their daily work is reconstructive: facial trauma and pediatric craniofacial repair, complex wound care, and burn reconstruction. That is the depth behind the phone call. When you reach us, a care coordinator finds the surgeon closest and available, then arranges for you to be met. See how it works.
We are here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. We hope you never need us.
STITCH Stories
We hope that you, your kids, and everyone in our community stays safe. When accidents do happen, we’re glad we can help. We are also honored when we get to share happy updates from recovered Dr.STITCH patients. Read some of the inspiring stories from Dr.STITCH patients.
What Else Do Patients Ask About Laceration Repair?
How long does laceration repair take?
Most straightforward repairs take under an hour from numbing to final stitch. Larger or more complex wounds take longer, and your surgeon will tell you what to expect before starting.
Can Dr.STITCH treat young children?
Yes. Dr.STITCH treats patients of every age, including toddlers and infants, and our surgeons know how to keep a scared or squirming child calm during repair, something that isn’t always easy to find in a busy emergency room.
When are stitches removed?
It depends on location. Facial stitches usually come out within about five to seven days to limit suture marks, while stitches over joints or other areas that move a lot stay in longer because they carry more tension. Your surgeon schedules the follow-up.
Will I be left with a scar?
Any cut through the full thickness of the skin leaves some mark, and no surgeon can guarantee otherwise. The goal of a plastic surgical repair is to make that mark as narrow, flat, and well positioned as possible, then support it with scar care as it matures.
What if my cut was already closed somewhere else?
Call us anyway. We can evaluate the repair, guide your scar care, and discuss whether scar revision would be worthwhile once the tissue has fully healed.
Should I call Dr.STITCH or 911?
Call 911 first for anything life-threatening: uncontrolled bleeding, a serious head injury, loss of consciousness, or a severed body part. Dr.STITCH is for injuries that need expert repair, not for emergencies that need an ambulance.
When to Call Dr.STITCH
When accidents happen, Dr.STITCH is just a phone call away. Call 1-877-DR-STITCH (1-877-377-8482) at the time of the injury, before you head to the emergency room, and our care coordinator will connect you with an on-call plastic surgeon serving Long Island, Queens, and NYC. In-office appointments are available. You can contact Dr.STITCH 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Save the number now, so you have it when you need it.
Source Index
- Weiss EA, et al. Water is a safe and effective alternative to sterile normal saline for wound irrigation prior to suturing: a prospective, double-blind, randomised, controlled clinical trial. BMJ Open. 2013;3(1):e001504. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23325896/
- CDC. Clinical Guidance for Wound Management to Prevent Tetanus. https://www.cdc.gov/tetanus/hcp/clinical-guidance/index.html
- Singer AJ, et al. Single-layer versus double-layer closure of facial lacerations: a randomized controlled trial. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2005;116(2):363-368. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16079656/
- Luck R, et al. Comparison of cosmetic outcomes of absorbable versus nonabsorbable sutures in pediatric facial lacerations. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2013;29(6):691-695. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23714755/
- Zehtabchi S, et al. The impact of wound age on the infection rate of simple lacerations repaired in the emergency department. Injury. 2012;43(11):1793-1798. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22424703/
- Waseem M, et al. Is there a relationship between wound infections and laceration closure times? Int J Emerg Med. 2012;5(1):32. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22835090/
- Tran B, et al. Topical Scar Treatment Products for Wounds: A Systematic Review. Dermatol Surg. 2020;46(12):1564-1571. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32932267/