Removing Blemishes
A wide variety of benign lumps and bumps can arise on your skin. Common examples are warts and verrucas, skin tags, little vascular lesions such as 'cherry angiomas' and pigmented lesions known as seborrhoeic keratoses. Some people might also have a tendency for 'overgrowing' (hypertrophic or keloid) scars, which can be very distressing.
Warts & verrucas
These are benign lesions on the skin, caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). They can take on a wide variety of different shapes and forms. Examples are tiny flat lesions on the face (verruca plana), more 'warty', rough-surfaced growths on the hands or lesions that tend to merge together and grow inwards on the soles of the feet, which may make walking uncomfortable. All these are of viral nature.
We offer different forms of treatment such as clinical 'freezing' (far more powerful than home 'freezing' cans) and paints containing high concentrations of salicylic and lactic acid for use at home. Or, if you prefer speedy removal, we can arrange a curettage and cautery ('medical scraping & electrosurgery') performed under local anaesthesia (LA).
Skin tags
Skin tags are harmless little lesions, which grow on 'stalks', often around the arm pits, on the neck or other parts of the trunk. They can appear individually or in larger numbers and may catch on your clothes or simply look unsightly. If you wish, we can arrange removal with clinical 'freezing' (cryotherapy), 'electrosurgery' (cautery) or 'surgical scraping' (curettage).
Blood vessel-related lesions
Sometimes harmless little vascular lesions such as 'cherry angiomas' or 'spider nevi' come up on the skin. Although these are benign, removal for cosmetic reasons can be done easily on the day with 'freezing' or cautery ('electrosurgery'). We can do this under local anaesthesia if wished, so that the procedure is completely painless.
Benign pigmented lesions
As we get older, many of us will develop 'pigmented warts' (seborrhoeic keratoses). These often appear on the trunk, sometimes in large numbers. At times, even for GPs they can be difficult to distinguish from sinister pigmented lesions such as a melanoma skin cancer. If you have the slightest concern, come and see our Dermatologist in clinic for an appropriate diagnosis. They will carry out a thorough clinical inspection and examination under the dermatoscope, a special magnifying lamp with a polarised light.
In cases where 'pigmented warts' are removed for cosmetic reasons (e.g. they're unsightly or they catch on your clothes) or where the diagnosis needs to be confirmed under the microscope, we can arrange removal by curettage ('surgical scraping') under local anaesthesia.
Seborrhoeic keratoses should never be lasered. There have been cases reported where the clinical appearance suggested a 'pigmented wart', but examination under the microscope revealed a melanoma skin cancer. Whenever a pigmented lesion is removed, it should be sent for microscopic analysis as a routine measure, for your peace of mind. You might be interested to hear that we offer an urgent, 24-hour turnaround, histology service.
As differential diagnoses of pigmented lesions include dysplastic moles and pigmented skin cancers, accurate diagnosis by a specially trained Dermatologist is important. For further information on this see Moles, Sun Damage & Skin Cancer.
Treatment of scars
Some people develop raised, 'overgrowing' scars (hypertrophic scars or keloids) after operations, trauma or even minor inflammations arising from folliculitis or acne. The earlier these are treated, the better the chances of a good treatment outcome. As with any scar, they won't disappear completely with treatment. However, in most cases we can significantly improve them. A common treatment for 'overgrowing' scars is repeated injections with steroid solutions plus topical home treatment.
To improve the appearance of 'normal', flat scars we offer Carboxytherapy. For Carboxytherapy, we inject tiny amounts of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) directly into the scar with a tiny needle. The CO2 gas dilates blood vessels, improves delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the skin and results in tissue remodeling with improved elasticity. Carboxytherapy is not a one-off treatment, but needs to be performed 6-9 times, 2-3 weeks apart.
Removal of milia
Milia ('milk spots') are harmless and extremely common among all ages. They appear as small, deep-seeded, hard white bumps often on the upper cheeks and around the eyes.
Milia are tiny, superficial cysts filled with keratin material (dead skin cells and not pus as it might seem). They can appear singly or in large numbers and although they're benign and non-symptomatic, we are often asked to remove them for cosmetic reasons. Either our Dermatologist or Medical Cosmetician can do this very easily and painlessly on the day.
Costs:
Consultation with Dermatologist (new patients) - £195
Consultation with Dermatologist (returning patients) - £150
'Freezing' (in addition to consultation fee) - £30
Steroid injections (in addition to consultation fee) - £30
Carboxytherapy (per session) - £200
For costs of other procedures please contact us
