Tags and Age Spots

What causes skin tags and age-spots?

Skin tags typically occur in areas of skin friction, heat and moisture. The most common areas are around the neck and underarms. Dermatologists believe that genetics and hormones also play a role in their development. Age spots correctly termed seborrhoeic keratoses, appear to be sun-related in addition to the above factors.

Fine wire diathermy
This procedure involves touching the skin tag or age spot with a fine hot device that looks like a pen tip. This heats and destroys the lesion so that it dries up and falls off over the proceeding days. Depending on patient sensitivity, anaesthetic injections may be used before the procedure.

Curettage
Curettage involves carefully scraping the anaesthetised skin to remove the ‘stuck-on’ lesion.  These usually heal within days and leave no visible scar.

Snip excision
This procedure involves quickly snipping the lesion from the skin with surgical scissors after a local anaesthetic injection.

Cryotherapy
This procedure involves spraying the lesion with liquid nitrogen which freeze-dries it. This destroys the lesion so that it dries up and falls off over the proceeding days.