Everyone knows to be careful of the moles that form on their skin, because some of them might have danger—cancer, that is—lurking behind their little pigmented dots. But how much do you actually know about mole removal? If you're looking to get rid of a mole or two and want to know what your options are, then here are the three methods of mole removal that you ought to know about.
1. Shave
When your moles rise up above your skin, it can cause a lot of problems; the moles can catch on things and get torn, which can risk infection, and can be incredibly painful. Thus, one method of removing these moles is to shave them off.
Your doctor will use a scalpel to basically shave off the bits of the mole that stick up from your skin so that the mole is level with the rest of the skin around it. There's very little pain in this procedure, as your doctor will use a local anesthetic to numb the area, but it will probably still feel a little odd and will not remove any of the discoloration from the area—only the raised bit of the mole.
2. Cut
A step further than shaving the mole off, this is where your doctor will cut out the mole from your skin and stitch up the wound, leaving it to heal naturally. Once again, anesthetic will be used so that you don't feel it, but it is a relatively simple procedure.
A similar procedure to cutting the mole out is to punch it out; in this method, a small cylinder of your skin (including the mole) is removed. This method is generally used when the doctor wants to diagnose the type of mole (to see if it's malignant or not) and cannot do so with it still attached to you.
3. Laser
Laser mole removal is certainly the most high-tech technique out of the three, but it is good for the smallest amount of moles due to its criteria for being used. In order to be taken off via laser surgery, a mole must be flat, black or brown in color, and smallish in size. The doctor will anesthetize the area, and then the laser will be focused on your mole in order to take it off.
Laser mole removal isn't the speediest option—it can take multiple trips to get it off entirely—but is a great choice if you don't like the idea of the doctor cutting into you in order to take off your mole.
