This article covers how healthcare providers clip skin tags, along with a few reasons why skin tags develop.
What Are Skin Tags?
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.
DermNet /CC BY-NC-ND
Skin tags are small, soft skin growths that form when the skin rubs against itself.
Skin tags are either dark or flesh-colored.
They are usually about 2 to 5 millimeters in size but can grow up to half an inch.
Some skin tags are connected to the skin by long, narrow stalks.
See your healthcare provider if a skin tag changes color or becomes painful.
Skin tags can sometimes be confused withwarts,neurofibromas, or nevi (moles).
Skin tags are benign (non-cancerous).
The vast majority of them do not require a biopsy.
It is also pretty painful to do it yourself and can leave a scar.
But the risk of infection is the most important reason not to cut a skin tag off yourself.
Whenever you cut your skin, you damage the tissue and create a route for infection.
Healthcare providers, of course, do.
They can also examine the skin tag to ensure it isn’t something else.
What you think is a skin tag could be another skin conditioneven skin cancer.
There are a few methods providers can use to stop bleeding.
A cotton tip applicator that contains aluminum chloride may be applied to the wound.
Or an electrocautery gadget can be used to seal it.
Can a Skin Tag Grow Back?
After your provider removes a skin tag, it won’t grow back.
Second,skin tags may accompany diabetes, a much more serious problem that requires medical evaluation.
Penn Medicine.The skinny on skin tags: 6 questions and answers.
University of Miami Health System.Skin tags are annoying, but harmless.
American Osteopathic College of Dermatology.Skin tags.
American Academy of Dermatology Association.Five reasons to see a dermatologist for mole, skin tag removal.
2020 Dec;13(12):32-37.
