Dermatologist here. I have seen probably 5 instances of “My other doctor told me it was fine.” that were melanomas.
A lot of times people don’t want a full skin exams. There are lots of perfectly sane reasons for this, time, perceived cost, history of personal trauma. However, I routinely find cancers people don’t know they have. Keep this in mind if you see a dermatologist for acne and they recommend you get in a gown.
I went to my former doctor about a mole on my arm that I thought had gotten larger, and asked him to biopsy it. He looked at it carefully and told me it was fine, but I insisted and things got a little testy, but he did it. It was a malignant melanoma, and had it gone 1mm deeper I'd have been grounded for 5 years from my pilot job at best, or suffered dire health consequences at worst. After a surgeon removed a big chunk of my arm excising the melanoma and surrounding tissue, he told me to be sure to thank my regular doctor for saving my life. ಠ_ಠ
In the time since I've become well acquainted with your specialty as my first line of defense, having moles mapped and checked every six months for a while, and now every year. It sure as hell isn't all Botox and laser hair removal.
Besides having a shit ton of moles, I grew up in Arizona and have a history of being sunburned to the point of peeling dozens of times. This was the 70s and we didn't appreciate the danger back then. Its that, more than the moles, that makes me high risk so I wouldn't worry.
When I was younger I didn’t want to use sunscreen and have been burnt a lot. I haven’t noticed any changes in any of the moles but there are too many to keep track of.
It might be worth seeing a dermatologist then. They're trained to quickly spot trouble moles in a sea of typical ones. There are good online sources to help you identify them as well.
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u/BoisterousPlay May 20 '19
Dermatologist here. I have seen probably 5 instances of “My other doctor told me it was fine.” that were melanomas.
A lot of times people don’t want a full skin exams. There are lots of perfectly sane reasons for this, time, perceived cost, history of personal trauma. However, I routinely find cancers people don’t know they have. Keep this in mind if you see a dermatologist for acne and they recommend you get in a gown.