What is Mole Mapping?
When Are We Open?
Our clinic is open on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday all day.
Mole mapping uses high-resolution photographs to take an inventory of all lesions on your body. Lesions are any type of change to skin that used to be normal and healthy. Lesions can be both cancerous (malignant) and non-cancerous (benign).
Mole mapping pictures provide a way to track changes on your skin if you have a large number of unusual moles or if you have a history of skin cancer.
Because it shows a history of changes to your skin over time, mole mapping can also help dermatologists diagnose melanoma and skin cancer earlier.
What Are the Benefits of Mole Mapping?
After a mole mapping session, patients can take home a copy of their photos on a flash drive. Patients can then look at these pictures when they perform self-skin exams and compare how their skin looks now to how it looked the last time they had mole mapping.
Dermatologists can also use mole mapping images to improve a patient's yearly skin check, which makes your skin check more thorough.
Mole mapping can be especially useful for patients who have a high chance of developing skin cancer. These patients can look at and compare images of how their skin used to look, helping them more effectively spot changes on their skin.
Mole mapping also helps dermatologists more accurately follow changes in a patient's skin.
Many people believe that melanoma usually forms inside a mole that you've had for a while. In reality, almost 70 percent of melanomas are new. Only 30 percent of melanomas arise from moles you've had for a while that suddenly change.
Mole mapping documents a full spectrum of moles. These include moles you've had for a while but then suddenly change. They also include new moles that you or your doctor may not notice unless you have skin photos to compare.
What Is the Prognosis for Melanoma?
When discovered in its early stages, patients with melanoma have a 97 percent chance of surviving. But as melanoma grows and spreads, some patients may only have a 17 percent chance of surviving. This is why it’s important to catch melanoma early.
Catching skin cancer early saves lives. But it also decreases costs for the patient and reduces the number of biopsies she will need. Fewer biopsies also leads to less pain and scarring.
Mole mapping photography only needs to be performed once. Both you and your dermatologist can use the same photos for years for both self-skin exams and official dermatological skin checks.
What is the Mole Mapping Process?
- Schedule an appointment for a consultation for Mole Mapping at Midvalley Health Center.
- At your consultation visit, your dermatologist will perform a total body skin check in addition to an evaluation for mole mapping. If your dermatologist recommends mole mapping, you may need to come back for a separate visit. Sometimes, this can happen on the same day, or you may need to schedule your mole mapping appointment separately.
- During your appointment, we will take photos with a high-resolution camera on a track that offers lots of detail.
- Three months later at a follow up visit, your dermatologist will perform another skin check to look for any changing moles or new moles. You will then receive copies of your photos on an encrypted, password protected flash drive during this follow-up appointment. You can then use these photos during your monthly self-skin exams at home.
- Perform a monthly skin exam using your photos. Be sure to keep an eye out for new or changing spots, marks, freckles, and moles.
- If you see anything that’s new or different, contact your dermatologist for an appointment.
- Schedule a yearly check up with your dermatologist to examine your photos and skin for any changes.
