Checking the skin or nail lesion with wood lamp involves shining a hand-held wood lamp device on the area of concern by your physician. Ideally the procedure is done in a dark room. Upon shining, certain skin and nail conditions may glow, hence aiding the diagnosis of skin condition.
With the wood lamp examination, different skin condition may glow and emit out different color, this will help the physician to nail down an accurate diagnosis allowing effective treatment to be delivered to patient.
One session is usually sufficient for doctor to physically examine the skin area with wood lamp.
You are advised to avoid make up, deodorant, body spray, perfume, moisturizer or sunblock as the chemicals in the product may affect the results of wood lamp examination.
Wood lamp black light does not cause cancer or harm the skin/ body. As the wood lamp does not shine out UVB wave lengths, no skin damage will occur. Wood lamp generally does not cause sun burn or sun damage, though it can cause rash in patients who are photosensitive. Nonetheless, as the duration of skin examination with a wood lamp is not too long, there is usually no downtime or side effect from wood lamp test.
General healthy skin appears blue in color under the black light from wood lamp. The skin areas that are dryer may appear purplish in color. Sometimes in thicker part of our skin, we may notice white spots under the wood lamp.
Bacterial infection such as Corynebacterium infection leading to erythrasma patches over the groin, armpit can fluoresce as coral-red under the emission of black light from a wood lamp. It is important to different this findings from fungal infection as the treatment differs in both conditions.
Lice/ nits can appear white under the black light from wood lamp. The nits that are empty may appear grey in color. This is useful to detect head lice, pubic lice among the hair follicles.
Cryotherapy or colloquially known as ‘cold therapy’ is a procedure that uses liquid nitrogen to deliver freezing cold temperature locally to destroy and remove abnormal skin lesion.
Electrocautery is a bedside procedure where your doctor will use an ‘electric pen’ to deliver high frequency electric current onto the skin to generate heat in order to stop bleeding or remove abnormal skin cells
A steroid injection is simple bedside procedure where your doctor will inject minute amount of steroid onto the skin.
Skin cancer screening is usually performed by your physician using a dermatoscope. Dermatoscope is a medical magnifying glass that allows your physician to visualize the size and shape of the mole that you are concerned of.
Fungal scrape and bacterial culture tests allow physician to confirm or debunk fungal/bacterial diagnosis of skin condition
Skin tags are benign. They are also known as acrochordons medically. They are small, soft overgrowth of the skin commonly located among the face, eyelids neck, armpit, groin, breasts and buttock folds.
An excision biopsy is a bedside procedure where your doctor uses a surgical blade to remove the entire skin lesion under the use of local anaesthesia.
A shave biopsy a bedside procedure where your doctor uses a surgical superficial shaving blade to remove the skin lesion under the use of local anaesthesia.
A skin biopsy, or punch biopsy, is a bedside surgical procedure where your physician will use a small knife ‘puncher’ to obtain a small skin sample under local anaesthesia.
Herpes zoster, commonly referred to as shingles, is a painful blistering rash caused by the varicella-zoster virus— the same virus that causes chickenpox.
Seborrheic Dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory condition of the skin. It is categorized as a type of chronic eczema, affecting the body area that has more sebaceous glands. characterized by red, greasy scaly patches.
Living in a hot humid climate of Singapore, fungal infection of the skin is common. The fungus thrives and favors body areas that are moist and warm such as the armpit, breast folds, groin, buttocks, feet, toes or even nails.
Eczema is a common inflammation condition of the skin. Although eczema can occur any time in one’s life, it typically starts presenting when one is a child.
Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition. It is a common skin disease that can affect 1 in 50 people.
Nearly 20% of people will get hives at some point in their lifetime. While they may not be life-threatening, hives can potentially cause both physical and emotional issues, particularly if they occur frequently.
Your body’s natural reaction to pokes, cuts, and trauma to your skin is to heal. On most occasions, skin injuries heal up without any problems.
