Removal Of Skin Tags: Treatment Procedures
What are skin tags? These growths commonly occur among adults
, and are usually characterized by benign growths on the skin. They are attached onto the skin by a narrow stalk, and have the color of the skin or the flesh. Among patients, tags are usually seen to develop in such areas as the neck, the armpits, the eyelids, and the area under the breasts among women patients.Aside from their awkward appearance, skin tags do not usually cause any health problems. However, in cases where they are constantly irritated by excessive rubbing against skin or clothing, they may develop itchiness and redness. In such cases, doctors will require them to be removed medically. Irritation may also occur as a result of hemorrhage or when the skin tissue dies from too much trauma and becomes black in color. In certain other cases, tags are also prone to being snagged by jewelry, pieces of clothing and other accessories. Constant contact with these irritants can cause skin tags to develop pain and result in discomfort.
How do you remove these bothersome blights? Can you remove them yourself? Or does removal require medical intervention? There are a number of ways and procedures for the removal of tags. In some cases, they are easily removed by surgically cutting them off with a pair of scissors. Some medical practitioners resort to freezing the tag, usually with the use of liquid nitrogen, and breaking it off when it's frozen. Others use the process of cauterization. Here, the skin tag is burned off up to the end of the stalk. These procedures do not require anesthesia if it is a minor skin growth. On the other hand, if the skin tag is bigger in size, then local anesthesia might be applicable. In addition, there are also cases that require medical expertise other than those of dermatologists, general practitioners and internal medicine doctors. For example, skin tags on the eyelids require treatment and removal by an ophthalmologist to make sure that the eyes themselves are not harmed by the procedure.
These are just the medical and surgical procedures for removing skin tags. There are likewise home remedies and self-medication procedures that patients can avail themselves of. Some patients have resorted to tying off small ones at the stalk using a thread or dental floss to restrict the flow of blood into the area and kill the tissue. After some time, the tag falls off. Compared to removal of skin tags through cutting, tying them off won't get you instant results but it won't cause bleeding either, unlike when the skin tag is cut with a pair of scissors. The procedures of freezing and cauterization, on the other hand, may cause the skin to discolour and may also require follow-up treatments.
Some patients have complained of recurrence after having their skin tags removed. These claims are inaccurate, however, because studies have not shown the possibility of the skin tag regrowing after it has been removed. In such cases, it is more likely that the patients are predisposed to developing these. As such, the new skin tags develop as a result of this propensity, and not as a consequence of the previous ones.
by: Robert Mcdonough