Sustaining a lip laceration can be very anxiety-provoking because even if the laceration is not severe or deep, you may experience heavy bleeding because your lips are very vascular. This means that even if your laceration is very minor, it may bleed profusely because of the rich network of blood vessels that make up your lip tissue. If you sustain a lip injury that bleeds heavily or if it takes a long time for the bleeding to stop, visit an urgent care clinic where the following interventions may be offered.

Cleaning And Suturing

After the physician at the urgent care clinic has assessed your injury and made sure that you are in stable condition, they will flush your laceration with sterile water or another solution to clean the area. If the laceration is deep, the physician will then use sutures to stitch up the injury.

The doctor will approximate the edges of the laceration as best as they can to help promote the healing of the injured tissue and to minimize the risk of jagged scar formations. Before the suturing process begins, you will be given a local anesthetic to numb the area so that you do not feel pain during the procedure. The urgent care clinic provider may apply an anesthetic gel on the lip before administering the anesthetic injection to help take the sting out of the initial needle stick.

Instruction Sheet And Antimicrobial Treatment

After your wound has been closed and you are ready to be discharged, you will be given an instruction sheet to take home with you. The instruction sheet will list the signs and symptoms of a wound infection so that you can watch out for them and seek medical attention if they develop.

The discharge instruction sheet will also let you know when to follow up with your primary care physician to get your stitches removed. The urgent care doctor will also give you a prescription for antibiotics to help prevent infection.

Be sure to complete the entire prescribed course of your antibiotics, however, if you experience side effects such as abdominal cramps or diarrhea, which are both common side effects of antibiotics, let your doctor know. In some cases, they may recommend that you take a probiotic or enjoy a couple of spoons of yogurt while you are taking your antibiotics to help repopulate your gastrointestinal tract with "good bacteria."

If you sustain a lip laceration that bleeds profusely, visit an urgent care clinic. When lip lacerations are treated soon after they occur, you may be less likely to develop an infection, experience extreme blood loss, and develop tissue scarring.