Skin Clinics

A skin check is a really important part of keeping well in New Zealand. We have high rates of skin cancer and a skin check is your best way to pick up lesions as early as possible. 

So what is a “skin check”? A skin check is a thorough check of all the skin on your body, in a systematic way. This allows us to check all the lesions on your skin. It takes up to 30 minutes to do properly, and to do this we use a special light called a dermascope. Our clinics will involve a doctor and a nurse, and if you need a biopsy or a removal, we plan to be able to do this at the same clinic, or quite quickly afterwards.

We are really pleased to be able to offer this service. Devoting 30 mins to a proper skin check means it can be done properly, rather than trying to squeeze it into a 15 min appointment, with other conditions to address.

We aim to pick up skin cancers, but also lesions that are premalignant. This means lesions that may not be cancerous yet, but may become so in the future. If we can treat these early, we can prevent the lesion developing into a cancer.

So how often do we need to have our skin checked? This differs for each patient depending on your risk. This is affected by your sun exposure, your skin type and your family history. At your first skin check, you can discuss with the doctor what your risk is, and when you should have your next one done.

Dermnet.org.nz is a great website and lots of information about skin checks, and mole map. It also has a full description of what to expect when you have a skin check done.