Handling Your Skin Tags
No one has perfect skin. Look at your own up close and you are likely to see moles, freckles, pimples, and warts. In addition, you may notice protruding skin "flaps," that are often located on your neck, under your arms, on your eyelids, and even close to your groin. Sometimes, you will have one or two, but some people have lots of them, even hundreds of them. They are common and not dangerous, but they are not attractive and can make you quite self-conscious. On rare occasions, they can grow to surprisingly large sizes if you ignore them. Recently, one famous dermatologist removed a huge skin tag from a patient who had ignored it until it was the size of a golf ball or larger and looked like cauliflower. If you notice even small skin tags on your body, you have several options to get rid of them.
DIY
Experts say that ignoring skin tags is the best method if they are not noticeable and are not uncomfortable. However, skin tags that are in places that experience friction, such as around your collar, can become inflamed. No matter how irritating these tags are, plucking them off can cause more damage than necessary. However, you can try several methods to get rid of tags that bother you. If you tie off your skin tag with string or dental floss, gradually tightening the string each day, you can sometimes cut off the blood supply, causing the skin tag to "die" and fall off. Some OTC freezing compounds may also work on your skin tags, but do not use them to get rid of tags near your eyes or other sensitive areas. Some people even swear by the effects of apple cider vinegar rubbed on the tags, which is an inexpensive and painless way to approach the problem.
Dermatologist
If DIY does not work, or you have a particularly large skin tag, have your dermatologist remove them for you. Your doctor can get rid of the little ones with just a snip or two of the scissors without anesthesia. Cutting them at home can easily lead to an infection, however. Your doctor may also consider cauterizing them. If you are one of the unlucky folks who get hundreds of skin tags, the removal process may take several visits, and you might have to return once a year or so. Unfortunately, people prone to skin tags keep on getting new ones.
Again, these growths are not dangerous, but if you let them grow for too long of a period, you will have to have a local anesthesia and simple surgery to remove them. Remember, if you are bothered by these growths, you don't have to live with them.