Mole Checks and Dermoscopy in Brighton: When to Get a Spot Looked At

Brighton is a seaside city, and coastal living means more incidental sun exposure than most people account for. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, and the single thing that most improves the outcome is finding it early. This is a guide to checking your own skin, and to when a mole needs a professional opinion.

If you are worried about a mole, read this part first

If a mole is changing, growing, bleeding, itching or looks different from your others, see your GP. Do not wait for a private appointment, and do not wait for it to settle. Your GP can refer you on the NHS urgent suspected cancer pathway, which is designed to have you seen within two weeks. That pathway is the right route and it is free.

A private mole check is useful for surveillance, reassurance and speed of assessment. It does not replace that referral. If we see something suspicious at Dr Selvi Clinic, we will tell you directly and make sure you are on the urgent pathway.

Checking your own skin: ABCDE

• Asymmetry: one half does not match the other.

• Border: edges that are irregular, blurred or notched rather than smooth.

• Colour: more than one colour in the same lesion, or uneven shades of brown, black, red, white or blue.

• Diameter: larger than about 6mm, though small melanomas exist and size alone is not reassuring.

• Evolving: any change in size, shape, colour, sensation or surface over weeks to months. This is the most important letter of the five.

Alongside ABCDE, use the ugly duckling sign. Most people’s moles look like siblings. The one that clearly does not belong in the family deserves a look, even if it passes every other test.

Also worth attention: a sore that has not healed in four weeks, a scaly or crusted patch that keeps returning, a pearly or shiny lump that bleeds easily, and any new pigmented streak under a nail. Not all skin cancer is a mole.

What dermoscopy actually is

A dermatoscope is a handheld device with magnification and polarised light that lets a clinician see structures beneath the surface of the skin, which are invisible to the naked eye. Patterns in pigment network, vessels and colour distribution distinguish most benign lesions from concerning ones far more reliably than looking at a mole across a room.

It is a clinical assessment tool, not a diagnosis. Dermoscopy substantially improves accuracy in trained hands, but the only definitive answer for a suspicious lesion is histology after excision. Anyone who tells you a scan can rule out melanoma with certainty is overselling it.

The same applies to smartphone apps that claim to assess moles from a photograph. They are not a substitute for examination, and a falsely reassuring result costs time that matters.

What happens at a mole check

• A history: your sun exposure, sunbed use, family history of skin cancer, medication that suppresses immunity, and what specifically has changed.

• Examination of the lesion you are worried about, and usually a wider look at the surrounding skin, since people often present with the lesion that is least concerning.

• Dermoscopic assessment, with images recorded where useful for comparison at a later visit.

• A clear outcome: benign and no action needed, benign but worth photographing and reviewing in three to six months, or suspicious and needing urgent referral.

We do not remove pigmented lesions for cosmetic reasons alone, and anything that is removed is sent for histology. Removing a mole without examining it under a microscope destroys the evidence, and a shave removal of an unrecognised melanoma is a serious problem. Any clinic offering to zap moles off with a laser for appearance should be avoided.

Who should be checked regularly

• Fair skin that burns easily, red or blond hair, freckling.

• A large number of moles, particularly more than fifty, or several atypical ones.

• A personal or family history of melanoma or other skin cancer.

• History of sunbed use, or of severe sunburn, especially in childhood.

• Immunosuppression, including after an organ transplant.

• Outdoor workers and people who spend long hours on the water, which in Brighton and along the Sussex coast is a lot of people.

Prevention still does most of the work

Daily SPF30 or higher on the face, neck and hands. Reapplication every two hours in strong sun. Shade in the middle of the day, and clothing rather than relying on sunscreen alone. No sunbeds, ever. And a monthly self-check, ideally with someone else looking at your back and scalp, since that is where lesions are missed.

Mole checks in Brighton

Dr Selvi Clinic is at 57B London Road, Brighton BN1 4JE. Assessments are carried out by a GMC-registered doctor using dermoscopy, with a clear written outcome. If anything looks suspicious we will say so plainly and make sure you are referred urgently. Contact us to book an appointment.