Regardless of your ethnicity, you should get examined for skin cancer once a year, where your doctor will do a thorough check of your skin. In this video, dermatologist Jeanine Downie, MD, explains what happens at a skin cancer exam with your doctor.
How your doctor examines you for skin cancer is as following. What we request is that if you have no history of skin cancer, regardless of your ethnicity that you come to a board certified dermatologist at least once a year. When you get there, our nurses will greet you, you get put in a gown, and we literally go from your scalp, and check your scalp, we check in your ears, in your mouth down to between your toes, and we just look everywhere.
We're looking for changing moles, we're looking for painful or tender lessions and we're looking for anything that you're worried about. Because many of the things that my patients are worried about walk in office, I'm happy to tell them, Oh, that's nothing you don't have to worry about that, or oh, that's going to get bigger but that's benign and we can take that off today or you come back.
all patients want to hear is that things are [xx] nine but unfortunately with it's epidemic of skin cancer many many things are not so we do a lot of biopsies and we save a lot of lives.
Jeanine B. Downie, MD is board certified by the American Board of Dermatology and holds medical licenses in New Jersey, New York and California. Dr. Downie is the director of her own practice, Image Dermatology in Montclair, N.J.
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