There are many ways to get rid of unsightly and annoying moles: some can be done at home and others may require one or more visits to the doctor.
Let’s consider surgical options in general and laser surgery in particular.
The first benefit of arranging to have your moles removed with your doctor is that it will involve an examination of your moles, to make sure that they are really common benign moles and not some precancerous mole, or worse yet, a potentially fatal melanoma. Treatment options will vary depending on the type of moles you have.
If all is well, now is the time to discuss how the moles will be removed with your doctor. The main things to keep in mind are;
- How successful will the treatment be? Will moles grow back?
- How many visits will be necessary
- How much pain you will have to endure, both during and after treatment, and what type of anesthesia will be available.
- And will you be left with a scar, and if so, how long will it stay before it fades?
The last two points are probably the ones that people think about the most. No one likes the idea of minor pain, blood, and scarring, and three of the most common mole removal surgical procedures come with a pretty high OUCH. factor (although it must be said that we are talking about a small operation and the pain is neither great nor lasting, just real).
These techniques are surgery by excision or cutting, by electrocautery (burning), and by freezing. Let’s put them aside for another time and consider the technique that sounds much friendlier, hardly hurts and leaves virtually no long-term skin damage.
And that, of course, is laser surgery.
Let’s look at the benefits a little more closely.
The first thing to keep in mind is that laser surgery works best on flat moles, preferably with a little color and contrast to the surrounding skin, rather than raised moles. So maybe all of your moles are not good candidates for this method.
During laser surgery, the laser targets cells that have some color. They absorb more light and heat, which basically causes them to boil and explode. The body’s normal repair processes will cleanse the area over time.
You’ll feel this as a small shock, kind of like being snapped by a rubber band, but not really serious and it’ll be over in a second. This is perhaps the biggest draw of laser surgery for moles and other skin blemishes.
The other is the absence of injury, and therefore scarring.
Because laser surgery only affects the upper layers of the skin. So there is no bleeding, although because there is some damage involved, the skin does release a small amount of fluid to help with healing. You can expect some redness and maybe a little scabbing. But nothing like the noticeable scabs that develop after other forms of mole removal surgery.
And because there is little pain or damage, many moles can be treated in one session. This means you get rid of your moles faster and need fewer visits to surgery.
All of that sounds pretty good: quick, clean, and with no real pain or chance of scarring.
But there are downsidessome quite important.
The first and foremost is that you will likely need more than one visit. It is not easy for the surgeon to find and treat every part of a mole on the first try, and unless the mole is completely destroyed, it is very likely to grow back.
Therefore, you will likely have to return for follow-up surgery after the first treatment has healed. This is particularly likely if the mole has penetrated well into the skin. This will mean extra expense, and each visit will probably cost more than $100.00.
Another concern is that it is quite common for moles to return a few weeks or months after laser removal; this seems to happen more often with laser surgery than with other forms of treatment.
This may be because the mole was not completely destroyed; Although it is a simple procedure, the surgeon will try not to go deeper than necessary while he tries to remove the entire mole. It is not always easy for the surgeon to do both successfully.
Laser treatment can revitalize skin cells – this is the idea behind laser skin resurfacing, where it appears that the laser stimulates the skin to grow back looking fresher and more youthful than before.
Moles are also made of skin cells, and there is quite a bit of evidence that moles can also be rejuvenated during laser treatment and grow back. I’m sure that’s not what you have in mind.
So it seems that laser mole removal may not be your best option. While the little pain and very low chance of scarring are big pluses, it won’t help if it takes multiple visits, and I doubt you’ll be happy if the moles come back, bigger and brighter than before.
Therefore, you may want to think more about the other surgical procedures available, some of which are more effective when done well. You can find information on these in other articles.