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Why are skin exams so important?

June 25, 2021

One out of five Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer within their lifetime. Although skin cancer is
the most common type of cancer, it also has the highest cure rate. Scheduling regular skin exams is the best way for early detection, which improves the odds of a successful treatment. Yearly, full-body skin exams should be supplemented with monthly self-skin exams and monitoring certain moles/spots with the ABCDE guide.The ABCDE guide is an acronym that can help determine if a mole or brown spot may be a melanoma. It stands for Asymmetry, Border, Color, Diameter, and Evolution.

Skin examinations involve a SkinDC expert doing a thorough check of your skin from head to toe, paying close attention to spots you can’t necessarily see during a self exam. They may utilize a small handheld magnifying device called a dermatoscope, that visualizes the outer surface of the skin (the epidermis) and the layers just beneath it. During the exam your doctor may biopsy a suspicious spot and send it for analysis. In addition to the traditional biopsy method, we offer a Dermtech – sticker biopsy – method to easily and more accurately detect RNA and DNA  from skin tissue samples to find genomic markers of melanoma without cutting the skin. If a sample happens to be cancerous, your doctor will call you to discuss treatment options. Skin exams are incredibly important and useful in detecting skin cancer and treating it early. Scheduling a skin exam may just save your life. The expert team at SkinDC are here to make this process as easy as possible for you.