Minor Cosmetics
Many people have some “minor cosmetic” skin problems, or minor lumps or bumps, or infective skin or nail problems which they do not like the cosmetic appearance of, or which irritate when caught on clothing or during activities (eg gardening, sports etc.), or occasionally can become infected requiring treatment.
Examples include:
- Skin tags or skin papillomas
- Moles
- “solar keratosis” – scaly skin patches (“sun spots”)
- Lipid deposits due to high cholesterol “Xanthelasma”
- sebacious cysts or inclusion cysts (within or under the skin)
- lipomas - small or occasionally quite large fatty lumps under the skin
- “Hydradenitis” – infected areas of groin or armpit skin
- Ganglions
- Nail problems e.g. in-growing toenails or recurrent infections
- Thread veins – see our page on injection treatments
Safe surgical solutions
We can help resolve these conditions, with outpatient or day case local anaesthetic procedures, and cosmetic appearance is usually excellent.
Most of these conditions are straightforward to diagnose, but increasingly the NHS is choosing not to fund surgical treatment of some or most of these conditions, terming such conditions “Procedures of Limited Clinical Value” i.e. that they do not constitute serious or significant health pathology, and evidence for the clinical value of surgical treatment is low.
However, we know that many people find these problems a significant “physical irritation” or are “psychologically” cosmetically unacceptable. Often such patients feel that after surgical treatment they feel better about their appearance, or their symptoms are abolished. Many patients therefore feel that their quality of life is improved overall by relatively minor surgery, despite the fact that there are no “significant” health benefits.
