EVALUATION OF SKIN GROWTHS:  We will examine skin growths and treat them if needed or requested.

SCREENINGS:  If requested we will do a full body exam looking for suspicious growths.

BIOPSY:  This means taking a sample of a skin growth for microscopic examination.  This is done with local anesthetic which numbs the area and afterwards you won’t feel a thing.  The biopsy is performed quickly and easily at the time of the office visit so that you will not have to make another trip to the clinic.

CRYOTHERAPY:  This treatment uses liquid nitrogen to freeze-kill rough spots.  This includes warts, precancers, or other non-cancerous growths of the skin.  Generally the area will blister, scab and then peel off in one to two weeks.  The freezing gives a burning or stinging sensation.  Sometimes the area heals with a light colored spot where the liquid nitrogen was applied.

SURGERY:  Under local anesthetic again in the clinic.  An entire lesion is removed which may or may not require stitches.  Larger lesions may be rescheduled.

CANCER TREATMENTS:

CURETTAGE AND ELECTRODESICCATION:  Shallow carcinomas can be locally anesthetized and then treated with curettage and electrocautery.  This technique scrapes and burns the top layers and is a simple treatment for less aggressive carcinomas and only takes a few minutes.

RADIATION THERAPY:  Radiation treatments are applied to skin cancers.  The treatments are simple, painless and cosmetically excellent.  They are especially useful for central facial lesions that involve the nose, lips, eyelids or ears because they are tissue sparing.  Side effects are minimal with only local irritation at the site of the treatment.

MOHS’ SURGERY:  This is a special surgery done on some aggressive carcinomas.  The cancer is surgically removed and sent to our on-site lab where it is frozen, marked, mapped, stained and mounted on microscope slides.  This allows us to check the edges or margins to see if all of the cancer is gone.  If there is more cancer at an edge, it has been carefully mapped and then more is taken from the area where the cancer remains.  The process is repeated until the cancer is completely gone. This surgical defect is evaluated for the best cosmetic outcome.  This may include stitches, and may be done by us, another dermatologist, or a plastic surgeon.

MELANOMA SURGERY:  Depending on the thickness of the melanoma as determined under the microscope, the area is surgically excised with a measured safety margin.  Thicker melanomas may require more including sentinal node biopsy done in the hospital with a surgeon.