Do Not Attempt to Remove Your Own Mole or Skin Tag – Let Our Professionals Help
Have you seen the advertisements for at-home mole or skin tag removal kits that having been popping up on social media lately? As with so many of the health and beauty “miracle” products you can find online, the concept behind these kits is indeed too good to be true. In fact, people who try to remove their own moles can wind up causing health problems and leave their skin looking worse than before. Read on to learn why the skin doctors at Grossmont Dermatology Medical Center strongly advise against these at-home kits.
Medical Concerns
From a health standpoint, people who try to remove their own moles and skin tags are at a much higher risk for infection. The lack of sterile equipment and sanitary environment allows bacteria to get into open wounds much too easily. An infection can prolong the healing process, while also risking visible scarring.
Moreover, a self-removed mole does not undergo a biopsy. So many of the moles and growths that people are motivated to remove are signs of melanoma. At our practice, we perform a biopsy on the moles we remove to see if they are malignant or benign. If it is malignant, we can diagnose skin cancer earlier and begin potentially life-saving treatment. Without a doctor, people have no way of knowing whether their mole is cancerous.
Cosmetic Concerns
Most people decide to remove moles for aesthetic reasons. Unfortunately, those who attempt to remove moles on their own are not likely to achieve attractive results. Whereas doctors understand how to remove the entirety of a mole, those who use at-home kits often only get the job partially done. They may remove the top layer of the mole but leave another portion that is embedded in the deeper layers of the skin. This does not make the skin look any better, and it can make full removal by a medical professional later much more challenging.
Scarring can also make your skin look worse. A careful, professional removal is far more likely to result in minimal scarring, while at-home kits often lead to bumpy, visible scarring.
Don’t Take Unnecessary Risks
Mole and skin tag removals are easy procedures for patients to undergo, but that is not the same thing as them being easy to perform. Our doctors have performed this procedure many times and have solid track records of removing growths skillfully, safely, and successfully. Heed advice from some of the patients we’ve seen who tried an at-home kit first and then asked us to try to “fix” their results: playing doctor on yourself is a recipe for an accident.
To schedule an appointment with our doctors for a cosmetic or medical mole removal, please call (619) 462-1670.
