Mole mapping a reliable medical technique, established in 1997 by a team of dermatologists, that provides an easy way to have your moles screened.
Put simply, if you are concerned about a mole, it can be digitally photographed in a non-invasive and safe way. The image is assessed by a specialist dermatologist who quickly and efficiently provides you with a report, and further treatment can be sought if suggested.
Moles are spots on the skin that look like small dark marks a bit like freckles, but moles are more likely to be raised from the skin’s surface. Most of us have them and they are perfectly normal, usually appearing during our childhood or early teens. They develop when the cells producing pigment grow together in a cluster, and vary widely in shape, size and colour.
While it can be simple to track changes to any moles you can see easily, mole mapping can be particularly useful if you have a large number of moles, or they are in difficult to see places on your body, especially if you have a family history of skin cancer or are at an increased risk, perhaps through overexposure to the sun or you have fair skin.
Although most moles are harmless and don’t change over time, some can develop into skin cancer. Overexposure to the sun, particularly as a child, can cause the number of moles to increase. The greater the number of moles, the higher the risk of skin cancer and irregular moles are also an indicator of increased risk.
We should all check our skin regularly, but it’s often easier said than done. Although most moles are utterly harmless, new moles that look unusual, that have changes in colour texture or shape, bleeds or itches or develops a crust or flaky appearance could be signs of something that needs further investigation.
Mole Mapping is an easy, painless, safe and non-invasive skin screening process that enables images of moles to be examined by a dermatologist so that any problems can be detected at an early stage.
At the Cheshire Aesthetic Clinic, we use a Dyplens – a type of dermoscope clinically validated in hospital trials – to capture images that are ideal for remote mole assessment.
