When is mole removal needed?

One may find moles to be of different types. There are mainly three categories of moles. When you the know difference between these moles, you will realize whether to remove them or not.

If you have moles, is it a must to remove them?

Science students might scoff at what they would deem an absurd question. It is a different case with laymen, who tend to become apprehensive upon reading about cancer-causing moles. It used to be that mole removal is complicated; that is no longer the case.

People in the past had to make do with home remedies and natural treatment methods. These days, however, mole removal can be performed only by skin surgeons using laser or excision surgery. You have to have your mole diagnosed for any cancerous tendencies before signing up for a surgical procedure to remove them.

Once the differentiation is clearly made, you will be able to determine the necessity of any surgical procedure. The most common types of moles, called nevus, are not cancerous at all. Dysplastic nevus is similar to the common moles, but it can turn cancerous at times. Melanoma surely causes cancer.

Moles have different shapes and sizes. You can also find variation in the color of the moles, symmetry, border line as well as differences in the surface texture. There are lesser chances for common moles to reappear, once they have been successfully removed. Dysplastic nevus also does not have recurring tendencies. Melanoma, on the other hand, has possibilities of recurrence. Even after a full excision surgery, you can find that some patients suffer melanoma after few years. Among the three, melanoma poses the most danger. It not only affects a single area in the body but also spreads wide to all the other regions. But mole formation in one area will not trigger the appearance in another area. Surface areas of normal moles are usually flat. They develop as smooth spots on one's skin. In other cases, they can have bumps or raised areas.

Dysplastic nevus, despite having smooth surfaces, can look unsightly. Unlike common moles, they do not have a proper shape or symmetry. In fact they have a pebbly appearance. Melanoma looks scraped. It is a little hard and also lumpy. Sometimes, you can find blood oozing out from it.

When it comes to the shape, nevus has a round one, and sometimes it can also be oval. There is no proper shape for dysplastic nevus. In the same way, melanoma also has no symmetry or proper shape. One way of finding out if a mole can turn cancerous is close observation of its shape.

If the border and shape of moles are not well defined, you need to take serious step of removing them. Nevus has a distinct contour and is well separated from the skin. Melanoma, on the other hand, has blurred edges. You will have trouble telling the mole from the skin because the notched contours blend very well with the skin tone. The same type of contour is also observed in people with dysplastic nevus.

Not all moles are harmful. In some cultures, they are regarded as beauty spots provided they are located on a certain spots.

I hope this article helps you to understand various aspects of different types of moles and their characteristics.