Professional mole removal by a doctor
Here are the steps that a doctor will typically take if you go into his or her office for mole removal. This technique is called a shave biopsy. It is called a shave biopsy because it requires relatively shallow cut into the top layers of skin to remove a mole.
The procedure takes only a few minutes. A more involved mole removal process is called an excision biopsy. An even more thorough procedure is called a punch biopsy.
Steps in a shave biopsy
Here are the steps for a shave biopsy of a mole:
- Mole and skin around it is cleaned
- Area is injected with a numbing agent.
- Doctor cuts out the mole with a scalpel.
- Then the wound is swabbed with gauze.
- Doctor cauterizes the small wound with an instrument to stop any bleeding. (Cauterizing burns the wound with heated instrument or chemical to stop bleeding and infection.)
- The mole is preserved by the doctor in a specimen bottle.
- It is shipped out for testing by a lab to ensure it is not cancerous.
To see this procedure in action watch this short video with Dr Coyle Connolly :
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGVEmUB5VEs[/embedyt]
