Does anyone know if I can get a skin tag removed by a regular doctor?

Yes. My family doc did it in a snip snap.

@Pachy

Did they deaden under the skin first? Is it burnt off?

I asked, becaue I had something more like a huge wart remove when I was younger. I think it was burt off. Not sure if its the same for skin tags

Where is your skin tag? Depending on location they can be more dangerous to remove than it’s worth, given that it’s just a cosmetic operation. Usually not though.

When I had one removed, the doc gave me a shot of local anesthesia first, then cut it off with some kind of electric trimmer which cauterized it.

@Mariah

On my neck.
I had two, sitting side by side.

I tried removing both with super glue years ago. But only one fell off. The other one is not budging. I’ve tried so many things, including tag removers.

Yeah….don’t remove them yourself. If it got infected you could be in a world of hurt. Go talk to your PCP about it, he or she will probably be able to do it without sending you to a specialist.

Just a thought, but skin tag removal is cosmetic, not medical. Your health insurance likely won’t cover the procedure.

@Heather13, he deadened the skin and snipped it off. I’m embarrased to tell you where the this particular tag was located, but I suffered no discomfort during the very quick procedure.

Incidentally, my dermotologist’s preferred removal method is nitrogen freezing. Hurts more than snipping but not for long—but it also takes a while for the tag to fall off, whereas with snipping, it’s gone immediately.

Yes, a GP can easily do it. A shot of Lidocaine and a little laser blast and it’s gone. It will leave a little cauterized wound no larger than the base of the tag which will heal in a week or sooner with Neosporin. About $75 per tag.

If you have a many tags, you might let them check your A-1C, a blood draw. Tags can be an early sign of impending Diabetes Mellitis Type II (adult onset). If that is the case, it is good to know. At this point, you can possibly head future problems off at the pass by a diet change and a more active lifestyle at this point.

When I was younger I went to a doctor to have all these little red spots removed. Once in a great while they’d turn into tags. The doc just went ”Zzzzzzt! Zzzzzzt! Zzzzzzt!” tapping with a tool that was hot enough to just zap them away…she burned them off very quickly.
I said to her, “Well, hell, I can do that!” She just laughed.
But I went and bought a wood burning kit, and now I do my own, have for years.
Quick, painless, effective, and cheap.

@Dutchess_III you used a wood burning thing and it was painless?

I would talk to a pharmacist to get an opinion about using an off-the-shelf wart removal system (localized freezing) for this purpose. Those things are cheap and effective at wart removal, but my question is whether the tag physiology is enough like a wart to enable the same treatment. I suspect that it may not be, because while the wart is definitely not “living tissue”, the skin tag may be. So the process that works for a wart may cause injury on the skin tag.

I think that an experienced pharmacist – though she cannot give “medical advice” – would have enough experience with the product to give fairly good general information. And if a doctor is definitely indicated, then that’s the advice you should take.

Regarding your specific question, a “regular doctor” could certainly perform the procedure, but I would ask to be certain that the physician you choose is board certified (first) and has experience in this kind of cosmetic excision (second). Because you don’t want to have to get follow-up plastic surgery to correct an unsightly scar on your neck left from the initial procedure.

@Dutchess_III I had the same reaction as @aster. Painless?!?! Yikes!

@Heather13 You might want to call your physician’s office and ask whether he/she will perform this procedure. Many doctors don’t do certain things that they’re qualified to do and can do. When I was a kid, a bad cut meant a trip to the GP’s office for stiches; now, most (all?) GP’s won’t do this and simply send the family to the ER.

Relativity painless, guys. You don’t hold the thing on your skin for a long time. It’s not like you’re branding something! You just lightly touch, touch, touch. It really doesn’t hurt. Just kind of a snap! snap! snap! And then it’s over and you don’t feel anything afterward.

I had my bloodvessel in my nose cauterized in 1960 and it hurt a lot , I jumped off the chair but it didn’t hurt afterwards at all. Like getting my ears pierced. It hurt a lot when they did it but not afterwards, @Dutchess_III .

Well, I’m sure it depends on the size of the area being cauterized, and how long the burn goes on. In your case, they cauterized an entire vessel, which, I assume, would take longer than what I’m suggesting for skin tags. (And actually….when I do wind up with stray blood vessels on my legs..bye bye! Same thing. But I do it it increments, over a week or so. Not all at once.)

It hurts much less than getting your ears pierced.

Oh, and the tags don’t have any nerves, at least the two I’ve had didn’t. So until you get to the epidermis it doesn’t hurt at all.