Arlington Skin Exam
Detect Early & Protect Your Skin
At SkinDC, our board-certified dermatologists and expert providers offer thorough skin exams to help you safeguard your skin's health.
During your appointment at our state-of-the-art Arlington office, our team of professionals will carefully examine your skin for any signs of skin cancer or other dermatological concerns.
What Is a Skin Exam?
One out of every five Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer over the course of their lifetime. Early detection of most types of skin cancer improves the odds for successful treatment.
Monthly self-skin exams and yearly dermatologist-performed full-body skin exams are the best way to ensure early detection.
How to Prepare for a Skin Exam
- Perform a self-exam. Come to your appointment prepared with notes about any new, changing, or unusual spots you want to point out to your dermatologist. If you’ve taken smartphone photos of a spot that has changed over time, be sure to show them to your dermatologist.
- Remove nail polish from your fingers and toes. This enables a thorough examination of your fingers, nails, and nail beds since skin cancers can form there.
- Wear your hair loose. Remove ponytails, buns, or hair clips so that your doctor can get a good look at your scalp where skin cancers can, and do, develop.
- Remove your makeup. Please come to your appointment without makeup on or be willing to remove your makeup at our office.
- Ask questions. This is your opportunity to get valuable advice and insight from a professional trained specifically in diseases of the skin. From explanations of unfamiliar terms to pointers on how to do a skin self-exam, your doctor is an excellent source of information!
Benefits of Yearly Skin Exams
Annual skin exams offer several key benefits for maintaining skin health and early detection of potential issues, including:
- Detecting changes early: Skin exams provide an opportunity for our board-certified dermatologists at SkinDC to monitor any changes in your skin over time, allowing for early detection of suspicious moles, lesions, or other abnormalities.
- Identifying skin cancer early: Additionally, regular skin exams can help identify skin cancer at its earliest stages, significantly improving treatment outcomes and prognosis.
By scheduling yearly skin exams, you're taking proactive steps to protect your skin and overall well-being.
How a Skin Exam Works at SkinDC
If you’ve never had atypical moles or skin cancer, the exam will likely be brief (about 10 minutes). You’ll need to remove your clothes and put on a medical exam gown. It is unlikely you will be told to remove your underwear, unless you have indicated that a spot on your genitalia concerns you.
Your dermatologist will thoroughly check your skin from head to toe, paying close attention to hard-to-see spots like your scalp, back and buttocks, behind your ears, and even between your toes.
Your dermatologist may utilize a small handheld magnifying device called a dermatoscope, which visualizes the outer surface of the skin (the epidermis) and the layers just beneath it.
Your doctor may biopsy one or more suspicious spots. This usually means removing part or all of the lesion and sending it to a lab for analysis. If the report comes back that the spot is skin cancer, your physician will contact you and explain the type of skin cancer and treatment options.