A skin tag can be described as a growth which hang from the skin. Though they have no adverse effect on the health of the individual but can be very unsightly. Most people get skin tags as they age and it is believed that almost half of the world population have at least one skin tag. Skin tags may fall off naturally but some may grow in places where you wouldn’t want them to and such areas include; nose, ears, neck and ear lobes. There are no known medications for skin tag treatment but there are some physical and mechanical procedures that can be used to remove them.
Some of the best possible physical ways of removing skin tags include; excision with scissors, ligation with string, nail polish removal method, and herbal/kitchen mix. Excision with scissors is the most common surgical method of removing skin tags. A sharp surgical pair of scissors which have been sterilized in alcohol or hot water can be used by a dermatologist or an experienced nurse to cut the tags. You can do it yourself by cutting the thin stalk closer to the tags so that you will not wound the skin, although self-removal using this method is not recommended. You need to prepare the tags with cotton swab and then apply antibiotic ointment after cutting the tags, and then press some ice cubes to numb the pain.
Ligation is one way of cutting blood supply to the skin tag regions by tying the base of the skin tag with string. This will cut off the blood supplyand make the skin tag dry out naturally and fall off after sometime. A discoloured and shrivelled skin tag is often noticed and the falling off of the tags usually take between 2-3 days. If you have several skin tags, you need to perform this operation on the tags one after the other.
Nail polish can also help dry out skin tags. Though the effectiveness of nail polish differ from one individual to the other, such polish can help someone scrub off the skin tags easily after application. You need to apply a coat over the polish for a couple of days and see if it has worked for you.
Herbal and kitchen mix for the removal of skin tags include a mixture of baking soda and castor oil which is blended into a thick paste and applied on the skin tags. The paste can block off the supply of air into the skin tags and that will make them dry out. You may also use woodland herb bloodroot which is known to be a very powerful herbal chemical that is capable of burning off skin tags. Do not apply this on sensitive areas such as eyes, nose or private parts. However care must be taken when using a product containing bloodroot as it is an extremely powerful substance.
