What are skin tags? how are they formed? and why do i get them?
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My son was born with a skin tag on his ear. Sometimes they fall of naturally like you mention here. My son's tag didn't fall of, though. He was going into surgery for another reason (thyroglossal duct cyst in his neck), and a plastic surgeon was doing the surgery, so he removed the skin tag.
Skin tags run in families. When you actually have a lot of irritation from it, it's time to talk to a doctor. You doctor can actually remove skin tags without surgery if they aren't too thick. (Kind of like using a tourniquet: your doctor ties it off with surgical thread and it will fall off later.)
Talk to your doctor. With the irritation, your insurance company should cover whatever procedure your doctor needs to follow to remove it for you.
Go to your GP. They can remove it by freeze-burning it off. Very quick and pretty painless.
If they bug you have your doctor remove them. DO NOT yank them off by yourself. My daughter did and ended up with a half dollar sized .thing (I cant remember what they called it its was cherry..something) that was filled with blood and was really gross. It had to be burned off and left her with a huge scar.
Try this site http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-skin-ta... It will give you the information you need.
If you have the guts to do it, I cut mine off with a pair of sharp sterilised nail clippers only hurts for a second or two and bleeds just a little as a squeezed spot would. Just hold a tissue or cotton wool ball dipped in antiseptic against it for a minuit or two.
Skin tags are, sadly, one of the things we have to put up with as we get older. They are caused by something, such as a stiff collar or other clothing, rubbing the skin.
They can be removed by tightly tying a cotton thread round the base of the tag and leaving it until the tag falls off. Sounds awful but it works. If you pick at them or try to pull them off they will bleed like crazy, but not if you use the thread method.
I get small ones on my eye lids which are very irritating - my previous doctor (now retired) arranged for me to have a couple removed at our local hospital minor ops department. When I took the last one on my lower lid to the new 16-year old who had replaced my doc, he was very dismissive and said it was too minor a thing to bother the hospital. Maybe he doesn't think that older women are worth treating!
I had to get some of those flip-up specs to be able to see what I was doing, and twist it off with a pair of eyebrow tweezers! Ouch!!
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