What Does A Dermatologist Do?

The skin is an incredible organ. It is the largest organ of the human body, accounting for up to 15% of your body weight. It is the body’s first line of defense against disease, protects all the internal organs, warms us up and keeps us cool, and sends messages about how healthy you are inside. Te skin contains nerve endings, sweat glands, hair follicles, pores, blood vessels, and many other structures. However, like all the other body parts, the skin can develop all kind of problems. Caring for your skin is extremely important for your overall health. And this is where your dermatologist in London comes in.

The word dermatology comes from the Greek word “derma”, which means “skin” and “ology”, the suffix that indicates a subject of study. Even though dermatologists are commonly associated with the skin, they also treat disorders of the hair, nails, and mucous membranes. Dermatologists are expert medical doctors with extensive training. They go to medical school and dermatology specialisation for 12 years or more, learning to recognise and treat more than 3000 conditions. The skin might seem pretty straightforward, but it is a far more complicated organ. 

Some of the most common conditions treated by dermatologists are acne, skin cancer, dermatitis, infections, hair loss, and nail problems like spots, discolouration, and separation. Some of the most common procedures that a dermatologist perform are biopsies, skin cancer precision therapy, laser therapy to remove warts, moles, sun spots, tattoos, or acne scars, surgical excision to remove growth like moles, skin tags, and lesions, and sclerotherapy, which is a procedure to treat spider veins. 

Being a dermatologist requires a great depth of clinical knowledge, including the various internal health problems that can cause skin symptoms. A very important job of a dermatologist is mole mapping. People at risk of developing skin cancer (for example, people with many moles and moles with unusual appearance) should book regular mole mapping with a dermatologist. 

There are four main categories of dermatology: general/medical dermatology, aesthetic dermatology, surgical dermatology, and inpatient dermatology. Medical dermatology deals with general and common dermatological concerns, such as skin cancer, viral warts, acne, rosacea, hair loss, and rushes. It also includes some procedures, such as injections, excision and skin biopsies. Aesthetic dermatology primarily deals with aesthetic concerns, such as wrinkles, volume loss, hyperpigmentation, textural changes, scar revisions and redness, all through cosmetic procedures and laser technology. Procedures include blepharoplasties to fix droopy eyelids, rhytidectomies also known as facelift, fat transplantation, laser or chemical resurfacing, microdermabrasion, botox, and collagen fillers. Surgical dermatology focuses on Mohs micrographic surgery, a precise surgical technique used to treat skin cancer. This type of surgery removes thin layers of tissue around a tumour. Between each removal, the doctor examines the skin for signs of additional cancer cells. When no more cancer cells are found, they stop removing tissue. Finally, inpatient dermatologists work as consultants to primary services in the hospital, such as internal medicine, paediatrics or surgery, who are managing hospitalised patients with dermatologic conditions.

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