Ooh, good luck! I had some stitches put in that were made of ruddy wire... completely unnecessary and not based on my needs or medical situation at all.
Then went on holiday the day after (the hospital had failed to warn me about the deep gashes they'd do into my arm, I thought it was just a normal out patients appointment!).
My arm healed quite quickly, except where the metal stitches actually pulled holes in my skin and caused separate little bits of bleeding and open skin unrelated to the wound they were supposed to be sealing!
Anyway, after a week of awfulness, I went to a doc and gestured a lot until he got the ruddy things out! Through good gesturing on his part, he conveyed that he didn't even need to put dissolvable stitches in, just the little steri-strip plaster things.
Oh and antibiotics for the infection in the extra wounds the completely unnecessary and harmful wire stitches had caused. Ffs.
Anyway, I'm sure I had a point beyond ranting about unnecessary and painful stitches.
Oh yes, the itching, catching and annoyance... it gets SO irritating!!!
In fact, I had attempted to get the wire stitches out before going to the doctor on holiday. My stomach wasn't strong enough and was worried about doing more harm... tweezers and nail scissors I think I could cope with, but when you realize you need wire cutters, err, no!
I would have pulled out normal stitches though, as long as the wound had definitely healed ok. Failing that I'd be tempted to cut off the external bits that are catchingband being so annoying. Though maybe leave a tiny bit on one side to grab with tweezers if for some reason you need to pull the inside bit out too?
Good point by another poster, to cut off any remaining stitch on the other side from the side you are pulling.
Don't want to drag a manky bit of stitch into your body from the outside in... shudder!
Anyway, good luck whatever you decide to do :)