Are you trying to decide on your New Year’s resolution? Have you determined to choose something truly beneficial for yourself this year? Maybe it’s time to consider a healthy choice that could serve you each and every year: getting an annual skin cancer screening.
Here at Colorado Skin Care, we love offering aesthetic treatments, but we take our health-related procedures extremely seriously, as well. Kimberly Stone, MD, wants to ensure all our patients have skin that’s as beautiful and healthy as possible, and a regular screening for skin cancer is absolutely paramount to this.
Many people think a skin cancer screening is about diagnosing cancer, but it’s not. The main focus of the screening itself is to search for signs and symptoms associated with cancer. These can include moles, growths, sores, or other areas on the skin that change size, shape, color, have an uneven border or color, or are larger in size than a pencil eraser.
You may have noticed some of these signs yourself, but it’s important to have them looked at by a provider who can determine if there’s a reason to be concerned. When you arrive for a cancer screening, you change into a paper gown. Your provider then checks your skin and notes any places on your body with these signs.
If there are certain areas where your provider has concerns, they’ll probably order a biopsy, a sample of the growth, or take one during the screening itself. The biopsy is the test that will help determine whether or not the concerning place on your skin is cancerous. All in all, the exam should only take about 15 minutes.
You may be asking why a skin cancer screening is helpful — necessary, even — as a New Year's resolution. Well, we maintain that this preventative treatment will protect and prolong your health. After all, it’s ensuring that you catch any signs of cancer as early as possible for your own safety.
It’s also highly effective for your health because many types of skin cancer cause almost no symptoms, especially not something you’d run to the doctor for help with. As such, getting under your provider’s eye once a year will ensure that any cancer signs, no matter how small, will be found early, which is always helpful for long-term health and recovery.
In addition, it’s wintertime. As such, we’re used to being all bundled up, and we sometimes forget to keep an eye on our skin. And even though we’re not in the sun as much, this doesn’t mean cancer can’t begin to develop at this time, however, so making sure someone is looking out for you could make a big difference.
Last but certainly not least, we know how difficult it is to keep a New Year’s resolution. But what if you had one that you only had to act on every year around this time? It would probably be easier to keep, making you more likely to make and keep other healthy resolutions like this one in the future.
This year, make a New Year’s resolution that’s easy to keep, helpful, healthful, and (thanks to many insurance plans offering discounts on preventative care) inexpensive. We know looking your best is important, but so is knowing your body is healthy inside and out.
We’re located in the Denver, Colorado, area and serve the wider community with everything from skin cancer screenings to acne treatments to laser hair removal. Simply call 303-740-4883 today, or make an appointment online. We look forward to meeting you!