Dermatologists diagnose and treat any problems you might have with your skin. As part of that, you can schedule a skin exam with your doctor to check for any signs of cancer or any other concerns you might have. Anna Bahnson, MD, Avera explains what these appointments entail.
When Should You Schedule a Skin Exam with Your Dermatologist?
“Some different factors go into why a person might be at high risk. A person who has had a first-degree family member, being a parent, sibling, or child diagnosed with melanoma should come in and get screened. If you have a specific concern about your skin as far as a new growth, something that’s bleeding, itching, hurting, those folks should come in for a skin check. I don’t think it ever hurts to get a baseline exam. If you have questions or concerns you can always reach out and we are happy to see new patients,” said Bahnson.
What Does a Dermatologist Look For During the Appointment?
“During a skin cancer screening exam we are looking for growths on the skin that may be concerning for skin cancer, whether that’s melanoma or basal cell carcinoma, or squamous cell carcinoma,” said Bahnson.
What to Expect During Your Screening
“We are looking at the entire skin surface. Usually we use a special type of tool called a dermatoscope or a light, which helps us to look at individual skin spots more closely than what we can see with our naked eye. We go through people’s hair, we look at all these different areas and looking very closely,” said Bahnson.
Look For Any Changes On Your Skin
“We always like to remind people to be looking out for their ABCDEs of melanoma so that’s looking for spots that are:
- A is for asymmetrical and look different from one side to another.
- B is for spots that have irregular or jagged borders.
- C is for color, looking for spots that are darker in color in the moles that you have.
- D is for diameter, looking for spots that are larger than a pencil eraser, about 6 millimeters.
- E is for evolving or changing, so a mole that you’ve had for a long time that develops any of those signs that I mentioned before or started to bleed, itch or hurt.
When it comes to non-melanoma skin cancers, those are our basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers. We are looking for pink bumps, pink patches, they could be pink and shiny, pink and crusty, they might itch or hurt but the most concerning sign being spots that bleed easily or sores that don’t want to heal, that’s when you would want to come in and get screened,” said Bahnson.
Learn more about skin care with a dermatologist.
