How many moles can you remove at once?

The number varies according to the risk of side effects, the degree of discomfort, the risk of scarring, the appearance of the wounds while they are healing and the time available for treatment.

In some situations, there is a high risk of scarring, for example, in a young person with or one with type IV skin and/or a history of keloid or overgrown scars. In that case, we often prefer to remove a single mole and observe the effects over several months to see if a scar develops. If there is no scarring, we can then remove further moles.

When performing mole removal procedures requiring local anaesthetic, or procedures that leave a surgical wound, we generally prefer to limit the number of moles removed to 5 or less. However, this can be negotiated with the treating doctor. This is because:

• Local anaesthetic injections are painful, and the anaesthetic itself can cause potentially serious side effects if used in large doses.
• We prefer to allow plenty of time for removing each mole so that the doctor can concentrate fully on achieving the best result.
• The more moles we remove, the higher the risk of complications such as infection, swelling, bruising or bleeding.
• It can be difficult to manage aftercare of a large number of surgical wounds.

When we remove angiomas, seborrhoeic keratoses and lentigines by laser or BBL, each lesion is treated very quickly with minimal discomfort. This means we can treat multiple lesions (sometimes dozens or scores) in a single session.