The primary objective of dental suturing is to position and secure surgical flaps in order to promote optimal healing (first / primary intention) provides support for tissue margin until they heal, without dead space and reduce postoperative pain.
Successful dental suturing ororal surgery is dependent on accurate coaptation of the flaps. Various methods and materials have been used (sutures, stents, paste dressings, tissue tacks and adhesives) for precise flap placement. Suturing has remained the most popular method.
The term “suture” describes any strand of material utilized to ligate blood vessels or approximate tissues.
Inadequate suturing may result in flap skipping, exposed bone / necrosis, pain and delayed wound healing.
The technique of closing wounds by means of needle and thread is several thousand years old. The history of surgical sutures can be traced back to ancient Egypt, and the literature of the classical period contains a number of descriptions of surgical techniques involving sutures.
Before catgut became the standard surgical suture material towards the end of the 19th century, many different paths had been followed to find a suitable material for sutures and ligatures.
Materials that had been tried included gold, silver and steel wire, silk, linen, hemp, flax, tree bark, animal and human hair, bow- strings, and gut strings from sheep and goats.
At the beginning of the 19th century metal threads were tested as suture material. At that time inertness of a material with respect to body tissues was considered an advantage.
Nevertheless, metal threads had major disadvantages: their stiffness rendered knot- tying more difficult and could easily result in knot breakage; in addition, suppuration of the wound edges occurred frequently.