Skin checks are generally best done when your skin is in a healthy state.

Avoid make up on the day of your skin check. Using a dermatoscope, we can magnify fine blood vessel networks up to 30 times to help diagnose skin cancers. Make up removers and wipes can traumatise your skin, making it much harder to identify these subtle skin clues as to what’s lurking on your skin.

Plain moisturisers in the run up to your skin check are advised, even using them on the day is acceptable but try to avoid applying moisturisers with fine glitter or sunscreen.

Sun tans, sun burn and fake tans make assessing your skin much harder. Please think about this when booking your skin check.

Sunscreen is always recommended when heading out if the UV is over 3 but try not to apply sunscreen for 2 hours before your skin check.

False nails, gel nails, acrylic nails and nail polish should ideally be removed.

The doctor usually asks about your sun exposure history, personal history of skin cancers and immunosuppression, and any family history of skin cancers. This is to try to build up a profile of your skin cancer risk before they even examine your skin.

Skin cancers can develop within existing tattoos.

Skin cancers can be triggered by new tattoos.

Tattoos make the assessment of your skin much harder and it is important to think about your risk of skin cancer prior to inking your entire body. If you are thinking about getting a tattoo, please talk to one of our doctors.

Detecting early skin cancers is difficult at the best of times – please be understanding if a skin cancer develops within in a tattoo and you had a recent skin check, it would have been challenging to detect this through the tattoo pigments. If this has happened to you, please discuss it with one of our doctors.

We do not require referrals.

However, if you have significant health problems or are taking blood thinners or other medications, it can be useful to bring this information along.

Our referral template is often built-in to your doctor’s practice software system, so your GP is able to send us your information with a few clicks. We welcome these referrals from GPs to ensure we have accurate information about our patients, to ensure their safety, and so that we are able to refer patients to hospital for radiation oncology or other treatments without delay should the need arise.

Generally speaking, you would need to be seen in a routine clinic appointment prior to being booked for a procedure. There are lots of reasons for this. Quite often, patients come expecting something needs to be removed but when it is assessed by our doctors, it doesn’t. We often find other skin cancers or pre-cancerous lesions that need treating. If there is doubt about whether a lesion is cancerous or not, a biopsy may first need to be performed, which may take a few days before results are available. If an excision is required, the complexity would also need assessment. A simple excision in an area with loose skin may take a few minutes, whereas a complex series of skin flaps to fill a large defect on the scalp may take many hours, and this all needs to be planned and booked so that the clinic waiting times are kept to a minimum. Please bear this in mind when making your travel arrangements.

The only exceptions are if your own GP has previously biopsied the area of concern and has referred you to us with photographs and histology reports as part of the MDT service. In this instance, we would usually be able to plan your procedure ahead of time and book you the appropriate appointment duration in order to safely conduct your surgery.

The majority of skin cancers are caused by UV damage. Generally, this damage is caused by a few good sunburns on those weekends at the beach when you were young as well as the ongoing sun exposure. An annual skin check is a good idea for most people and we suggest starting from age 16. Usually, if you are young and considered low-risk, your doctor may advise less frequent checks until you reach 40 years old. At 40, we recommend having annual checks regardless of your risk when you were young.

If a skin cancer is found, you may require checks more frequently at intervals of a few months. Your doctor will advise you if this is the case.

Patients only seem to think about their skin checks in the summer. Many skin check clinics hate the winter as traditionally, their appointment books thin out and their waiting rooms gather dust!

The truth is that winter months are the best time for skin checks. We can make proper assessments without worrying about sun tans and sun burn.

Some of our treatments for pre-cancers include chemical peels using creams like Efudix. This can leave you looking very red for several months and so winter becomes a popular time to come and see us for this.

We are committed to offering affordable, high-quality healthcare. Unfortunately, the Medicare rebates have changed very little in the last 30 years, and we are unable to run such a service without charging some level of fees.

When setting our fees, we have to consider rents, rates, utilities, insurances, salaries for our receptionists, nurses, and doctors, as well as the rising costs of equipment, software subscriptions, sterilising instruments, stitches, dressings and other consumables.

Our fees are still very competitive and much less than you would expect to pay if you were to see a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon for your skin check or procedures.