I will start with the part that costs us bookings. Some of the moles that walk into our clinic should walk back out still attached. A laser takes a mole off by destroying it, so whatever that mole was, it becomes a wisp of smoke and a small pale mark, and no pathologist will ever be able to say what it had been.

That one fact decides most of what follows. Mole removal in BGC is sold as a fifteen-minute errand, and for a great many moles that is exactly what it is. The skill sits in knowing which ones.

What mole removal in BGC actually involves

A doctor looks at the mole before anyone discusses removing it. We want to know how long it has been there, whether it has changed, and how it has behaved. A mole that has sat in the same spot looking the same way since your twenties is a different proposition from one that arrived last year.

If it is one of the straightforward ones, it comes off with a laser, usually in a single visit. Local anaesthetic, a few minutes of work, and you go home with a small dressing. What is left is a flat pale mark that settles over several weeks. Nothing is cut out and nothing goes to a laboratory, because the laser has already passed through the tissue.

That last sentence is the entire reason the assessment comes first.

The moles we will not laser

We leave a mole alone if it has changed shape, colour or size. We leave it alone if the border is ragged, if the colour runs uneven across it, or if it bleeds or itches without being knocked. Those go to a dermatologist who can take the lesion off properly and send it for testing.

The literature on why is uncomfortable reading. Böer, Wolter and Kaufmann described two patients whose lesions were read clinically as harmless naevi and treated with laser vaporisation. Both were melanoma. When the tumours recurred, the histology was hard to interpret precisely because the laser had already been through the tissue, and the authors concluded that the laser had delayed the correct diagnosis and may have worsened the outlook (Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft, 2003).

Two patients is a small number. It is also two more than we would like to add to. On a mole we are confident about, losing the specimen costs you nothing. On a mole we are not confident about, it costs the one thing that could have answered the question.

Warts usually take more than one visit

Warts are viral. The ones you can see have surfaced, and others are often already forming under skin that still looks normal. Treat only what is visible and the new ones appear a few weeks later, which patients quite reasonably read as the treatment having failed.

The evidence here is humbling across every method. Kwok, Holland and Gibbs pooled the randomised trials and found clearance of roughly 52 percent for salicylic acid, 49 percent for cryotherapy and 58 percent for the two combined, against 23 percent for placebo (British Journal of Dermatology, 2011). The Cochrane review by Kwok and colleagues, covering 85 trials and 8,815 randomised participants, landed in the same place: the effect of even the best-studied treatment is real and modest (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2012).

Those trials looked at creams and freezing rather than the laser we use, and the lesson carries anyway. Warts are stubborn whatever the tool. So we tell you to expect a course during the first visit, well before the second one.

Skin tags, and the thing they occasionally tell you

Skin tags are the easy member of this group. They are small, harmless, and usually dealt with in the same visit you first ask about them. They appear where skin rubs skin, so the neck, the eyelids and the underarms are the usual places.

There is a reason to mention them to your doctor that has nothing to do with how they look. Wali and Wali compared 126 patients with skin tags against controls and found a significant association between the tags and triglycerides, LDL, VLDL cholesterol and leptin levels, and they suggested skin tags may have a part to play in picking up metabolic syndrome early (Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research, 2016).

One tag proves nothing. A crop of new ones over a year or two is worth a fasting glucose and a lipid panel. Removing the tag settles the skin. The blood work asks a different question, and it is a question worth asking while you are already sitting in front of a doctor.

What mole, wart and skin tag removal costs at VMA

Every figure is published and matches what the front desk quotes.

A skin consultation is ₱1,500, and it is waived if you go ahead with a procedure on the same day. Mole removal starts at ₱6,000. Skin tag removal starts at ₱6,000. Wart removal on the face and neck starts at ₱10,000.

Those are starting prices for a reason. Size, number and site all change the work involved, so the final figure is written down at the consultation, before anything is done. A single stable mole on the cheek and a scatter of warts along the jaw are not the same afternoon. Everything else we offer is on the price list.

How the visit runs

You sit down, we look properly, and we tell you in plain words what we think it is, including when we are not certain and what would make us certain. You leave with a plan and a price on paper. If the lesion is one of the straightforward ones and you would like it dealt with there and then, we can usually do it in the same visit, and the consultation fee comes off the bill.

Nothing is sold in the room. If you would rather go home and think about it, go home and think about it.

The honest part

Three things worth hearing before you book a removal anywhere.

One. The assessment is the product. Any clinic can fire a laser at a mole. What you are paying a doctor for is the sentence that comes before the laser: this one is fine, or this one needs somebody else.

Two. A clinic that removes any mole you point at has skipped the only step in this that carries real risk for you. Declining a removal costs a clinic the booking, which makes it the easy step to quietly drop.

Three. We work at the edges of what an aesthetic and skin health clinic should do, and moles, warts and skin tags sit inside them. Anything needing excision, laboratory testing or hospital care sits outside, and you will hear that in the first ten minutes rather than after we have taken your fee and had a go.

If you would like a lesion looked at properly, you can read what a first visit covers on our skin health consultation page, or book a consultation directly. We are at G/F Inoza Tower, 40th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

For the underlying science, you can browse the peer-reviewed literature on PubMed’s indexed studies on laser treatment of pigmented lesions.

This article is educational and is not medical advice. Please consult a qualified physician before starting any aesthetic treatment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Before you book a removal anywhere, ask what the clinic would do if the mole looked wrong. The answer tells you how carefully your skin is about to be handled.