Mostskin tags(acrochordon) need not be removed for health reasons, but many people choose to for cosmetic reasons.
You may wonder if you can cut a skin tag off at home, but that is not a good idea. The safest, most effective way to remove a skin tag is to have your healthcare provider take it off surgically, cauterize it, or freeze it (cryosurgery).
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.See PhotoDermNet /CC BY-NC-ND
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.See Photo
This photo contains content that some people may find graphic or disturbing.
Skin tags are small, soft skin growths that form when the skin rubs against itself. Skin tags can be anywhere on the body but tend to be near skin folds, such as the neck, underarms, torso, eyelids, and inner thighs.
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.
Nobody knows why skin tags form, though some risk factors have been identified, including:
Skin tags are benign (non-cancerous). The vast majority of them do not require a biopsy.
Can Genital Skin Tags Be Painful?
Why It’s Not Safe to Clip a Skin Tag Yourself
Skin tags can bleed heavily when cut off and may require stitches. 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. It’s unlikely that anyone has the sterile environment, proper tools, and medical know-how toremove a skin tag safely at home.
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 condition—even skin cancer.
And if you’re overweight, have skin tags, and haven’t seen a doctor in some time, your provider may not only remove your skin tags but test (and, if necessary, treat) you for diabetes.
Skin Problems Related to Diabetes
How Professionals Remove Skin Tags
Providers can remove skin tags in a few ways:
A skin tag might bleed when it’s removed. 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 device can be used to seal it.
They will also ensure that the area is properly cleaned before and after to prevent infection and may give you care instructions for covering and protecting the wound until it is healed.
Can a Skin Tag Grow Back?After your provider removes a skin tag, it won’t grow back. However, that doesn’t mean another one won’t grow in its place.Certain parts of your body might be more sensitive and more likely to get skin tags than others.
Can a Skin Tag Grow Back?
After your provider removes a skin tag, it won’t grow back. However, that doesn’t mean another one won’t grow in its place.Certain parts of your body might be more sensitive and more likely to get skin tags than others.
How to Prevent Skin Tags
Can You Remove Skin Tags on Eyelids?
Summary
Although you may figure that removing skin tags is as simple as grabbing a pair of scissors from the cupboard drawer, it isn’t.
How to Safely Remove a Skin Tag
5 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.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.Coakley A, Wu M, Kumar J.A comparison of ferric subsulfate solution, silver nitrate, and aluminum chloride for pain assessment, time to hemostasis, and cosmesis in acrochordon snip excision.J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2020 Dec;13(12):32-37.
5 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.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.Coakley A, Wu M, Kumar J.A comparison of ferric subsulfate solution, silver nitrate, and aluminum chloride for pain assessment, time to hemostasis, and cosmesis in acrochordon snip excision.J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2020 Dec;13(12):32-37.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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.Coakley A, Wu M, Kumar J.A comparison of ferric subsulfate solution, silver nitrate, and aluminum chloride for pain assessment, time to hemostasis, and cosmesis in acrochordon snip excision.J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2020 Dec;13(12):32-37.
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.
Coakley A, Wu M, Kumar J.A comparison of ferric subsulfate solution, silver nitrate, and aluminum chloride for pain assessment, time to hemostasis, and cosmesis in acrochordon snip excision.J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2020 Dec;13(12):32-37.
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