Dr. Green: During a skin cancer screening, the dermatologist tries to examine every part of your skin for abnormal growths. Some dermatologists use magnifying lights or head gear to examine your skin (especially if they have bad far sighted vision!) and some dermatologists use a magnifying apparatus called dermascopy to check out suspicious moles. I personally like to take high resolution photographs of suspicious moles, so that when someone comes back for their next exam I can easily see if it has changed. None of this hurts, and no one way works best. As long as you feel all of your skin is checked is what matters

Q: Are there situations where a patient should get their skin checked more than once a year?

Dr. Green: Yes, people with a history of skin cancer, abnormal moles, or just a lot of moles often need more than one skin exam a year to make sure thing are okay.

Thank you Dr. Green for answering our questions!

For more information on skin cancer prevention please refer to the following Health Central article on free skin cancer screenings.