Our minor surgery service covers the removal of moles, cysts, skin tags and other lesions, performed under local anaesthetic with the same care and attention to detail you'd expect from a hospital setting. The articles below cover the questions patients ask us most often, from what actually happens during an appointment to why every lesion we remove is sent off for histology. Whether you're weighing up a mole check or just want to know what to expect before booking in, you'll find the practical answers here.
Cysts have a habit of sitting quietly under the skin for a long time, minding their own business, until suddenly they don’t. Patients often come in unsure whether they’re making a fuss over nothing, or whether they should have dealt with it sooner. So let’s go through what a cyst actually is, the signs that […]
Skin tags are one of those things almost every patient apologises for asking about. “It’s probably silly, but…” is how the conversation usually starts, followed by someone lifting their collar or rolling up a sleeve to show me a small flap of skin they’ve been meaning to get looked at for months, sometimes years. It […]
“Will it hurt?” is usually the first question, and “how long will it take?” is usually the second. We understand why. For most patients, having a lump, cyst or lesion removed is not something that happens often, so it’s entirely natural to walk in not quite knowing what to expect. Over the years we’ve found […]
“It’s probably nothing, isn’t it? Do you really need to send it off?” We hear some version of that question most weeks, usually just after we’ve removed a skin tag, a cyst or a mole that looked entirely unremarkable. It’s a fair question, and we understand why patients ask it. The lesion is gone, it’s […]
If you’ve ever stood in front of the mirror, spotted a mole you don’t remember seeing before, and thought “I’m sure it’s nothing”, you’re not alone. Almost every patient who comes to see us about a mole starts the conversation the same way, half apologising for wasting our time. They never are. In over twenty […]
One of the most common things patients say to me in consultation is “I don’t even know what to call this.” That is completely normal. Most people have never had a reason to learn the difference between a skin tag and a fibroma, or a cyst and a lipoma, until suddenly they have one and […]
If you have ever asked your NHS GP to remove a skin tag or a lump you don’t like the look of, you have probably been told no. That is not your GP being unhelpful. The NHS simply does not fund removal of lesions that are not a health risk, and I understand why, resources […]
A large proportion of the patients with joint pain have been managing it quietly for months, sometimes years, before they finally book an appointment. They have tried painkillers, rest, maybe a bit of physiotherapy, and assumed that was the limit of what could be done short of surgery. More often than not, that assumption is […]
At health + aesthetics, we carry out a number of minor surgical procedures. These include treating skin tags, thread veins, fibromas and keloid scars. While these conditions pose no threat to your health, we know from talking to our patients that they can be a source of anxiety and concern, particularly when they are visible […]
