Dr Moz, 113 Mountain View Road, Briar Hill (2026)

20/03/2026

I do hope you’re getting slightly sick of the pattern

New spot?
Not going away?
Slightly different to its neighbours?
Itches?

If your spot meets any of these criteria it’s probably sensible to have it examined with a dermatoscope

This one is a squamous cell cancer in situ which is a type of pre-cancer with about a 5% per year risk of becoming a nastier invasive cancer.

Get it diagnosed early and you can basically forget about it in most cases after treatment

Leave it to fester and you may be looking at a wildly different situation

Early intervention saves lives

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocopy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their short courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

18/03/2026

All through my comments is some version of

“Everytime I get a skin check nobody uses that!”

Dermoscopy has been around for about 30 years

Digital Dermoscopy maybe the last ten years

Accuracy diagnostically goes from somewhere around 70% to 90-odd% with dermoscopy.

It means your doctor can find your cancers when they are 2 or 3mm not when they are so obvious you can spot them from across the carpark.

Every circumstance is different but where you can make sure you are being examined by someone with diagnostic skills using a dermatoscope

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocopy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their short courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

12/03/2026

Two for one deals are usually great!

One place you don’t want the 2 for 1 is in your doctors room😬

Here we see what looks like a seborrhoeic keratosis or harmless wisdom spot

But on closer inspection it has some scale (which we can sometimes see in them)
And the blood vessels are a bit all over the show and not consistent with classic Seb k pattern

We chose to curette this off (kind of like a scrape followed by some liquid nitrogen) because I was pretty suspicious it was precancerous.

The pathology confirmed my suspicions and because we’d chosen to curette we get to say hooray we’ve already treated your skin cancer with about a 90-ish% success rate

Yet another win for Dermoscopy!

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocopy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their short courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

12/03/2026

How do we feel about moderately dysplasia naevi?

I hate them 😂

09/03/2026

One of the most common reactions I get from people is - but why don’t want to watch it? Can’t we just cut it out?

The reality is if I’m 100% sure your spot is a melanoma then it probably isn’t a good one.

We see much better outcomes when we diagnose these lesions earlier rather than later. With that in mind I will often have a low threshold for following slightly odd spots over short intervals until I’m comfortable one way or another with the diagnosis.

Ultimately it all comes down to reducing any uncertainty we have and really I only have two ways to do that!

I can either cut it out and let the pathologist decide

Or

I can monitor the spot and see how the biology evolves over time.

There’s not really a single correct answer but given I am in a General Practice context in means I’m usually easier to access which means I often prefer close monitoring rather than a quick biopsy.

It does mean you have to come back and say hello but it may also mean you avoid a biopsy!

Does that mean I get to choose each time?
Absolutely not! We always have a discussion about how concerned I am about that specific spot and we make a decision together as a team.

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocopy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their short courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

04/03/2026

Why do I keep saying young people often need plastic surgeons?

Is it because I’m ageist and a real so and so?

Well I guess that’s not for me to say but I don’t think so!

It’s because younger skin is more prone to hypertrophic or visible scarring!

Loose skin + less collagen means with great planning you can achieve phenomenal cosmetic results!

Obviously some scars will be not the way we want them and some patients will have infections or wound dehiscence leading to unsightly scarring

Everyone that uses a scalpel has scars they aren’t proud of and ultimately the question is how confident your clinician is they can offer a good chance of a cosmetically acceptable outcome.

At the end of the day I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again many times over my career - it’s always your choice and you should never feel shy about asking for a referral to dermatology or plastics if you are worried that you don’t exactly have the necessary trust that the clinician in front of you will do a job you’re happy with!

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

03/03/2026

Darker skin tones don’t need sun protection is one of the most contentious points on the internet.

reality is Darker skin tones absolutely make skin cancers
WHY they make skin cancers is the kicker

usually in Fitzpatrick 1/2/3 skin (albino through to olive/mediterannean skin tones) skin cancers are MOSTLY due to UV damage over time

usually in Fitz 4/5/6 (Darker skin tones) it is usually genetics at play rather than UV exposure directly.

Fitzpatrick 3 skin (someone that looks a bit like me and tans nicely but can still burn!) is the MOST confused group of patients I see around their sun protection needs!

We still need SPF and to practice sun protection behaviours as while we may make fewer skin cancers than Fitzpatrick 1/2 skin types we absolutely still make them!

Not only that but research suggests that often the diagnosis is delayed as patients aren’t thinking about skin cancer and sometimes the doctors aren’t thinking about skin cancers or may not have the diagnostic nouse to pick the skin cancers as they can look slightly different (hint they all have more pigment in them!!!)

I did do a webinar a while back with the team and I will put the link in my stories today to go with this video if you are keen on watching it.

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

02/03/2026

I’ve talked to you about the 4 week rule before

Remember anything that is slowly growing and won’t go away is probably worth looking at.

No this doesn’t mean I want to see every pimple you have it just means I want to see them when they don’t go away!!!

This one will get surgery and because the patient is quite young she has opted to go see a plastic surgeon for the closure.

Early diagnosis means smaller surgical procedures!

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

27/02/2026

This gent’s wife (a pretty eagle eyed Dermal Therapist ) sent him in for a skin check and her main concern was this slowly growing spot.

She’d noticed that it was behaving in some pretty odd ways:
- Slowly Growing
- Red
- Unlike anything else he had on his scalp

So what did the dermatoscope examination show?
Those blue-grey patches are pretty classic for Basal Cell
The almost transluscent character of the spot is fairly consistent with BCC as well
Finally there are some well focussed vessels (most visible) on the right hand side of the spot

a biopsy to confirm showed a nodular BCC

Because it was caught early it was suitable for a more straightforward closure type which is always nice.

Hopefully he will heal up beautifully and fingers crossed for no more!!

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

25/02/2026

Sun barnacles
Wisdom spots
Senile warts of your doctor is feeling Spicy 😬

These seborrhoeic keratosis are mostly a cosmetic nuisance and that’s usually all the do

In some circumstances though you can get what’s called a Squamous cell cancer in situ ARISING in a Seborrhoeic keratosis

That’s one hell of a mouthful but essentially it means a variant of pre cancer that goes from these things!

How can you tell?
Well it’s not always easy but typically your doctor will looo for key changes like irritation and white flies on dermoscopy (think white lines and circles)

But you the patient will notice it gets irritated and won’t get better!

One of the things I do for these is if I’m going to biopsy I book the biopsy in 4-6 weeks time!!

That usually means by the time the biopsy appointment is upon us either the spots better and we know you don’t need the biopsy (great news) or the spot still looks super irritated and we know we probably should move to a biopsy or treatment discussion.

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

16/02/2026

They are called immersion fluids

My small brain 🧠 thinks about it this way

Your skin is an amazing living thing. Ira going to have little teeny tiny peaks and troughs and valleys and mountains because of sweat glands, dry skin, skin spots and belly button lint

My scope is a rigid hard surface

When the two interact we can get some funny or suboptimal light behaviour making the picture less clear

When I use an immersion fluid, it acts as a gateway between the skin and my scope

Flat surfaces = alcohol spray
Slightly raised surfaces = alcohol gel
Really big spots or very big curves or really having to battle gravity = ultrasound gel

Why not use ultrasound gel everywhere?
It’s Annoying for the patient, sticks to my lens for future examinations and definitely doesn’t evaporate in about 20 to 30 seconds like my alcohol spray

I’d really appreciate if everybody that watched this video and made it to the end tags so I can hopefully get a lifetime supply for free 😂

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

15/02/2026

It’s been a while since I’ve shown you an impossibly small skin cancer.

This one is tops 1.5ish mm in size!
But that pearl appearance caught my eye.

There are a few things that can look like this with the naked eye including:
Basal cell cancer (of course!)
Sebaceous hyperplasia (big sweat glands)
And
Trichoepithelial cysts (a harmless cyst that looks just like some basal cell cancers at times!)

Dermoscopy helps greatly in being able to tell which ones need our attention and which ones don’t.

Because it’s been found nice and early this gent will get away with a much smaller surgery than if we’re left out to grow and in that location every mm counts!!!!

Don’t forget to like or comment on this video of you are keen to see the explainer on why I am constantly putting on Aquium onto these spots before photographing them!!

Recorded with DL5 by Dermlite
In Australia I recommend Docstockmedical
Want to learn more dermosocpy? Healthcert (use code DRMOZ for 15% off any of their courses - I am extremely biased because I teach on their courses and think they are fantastic!)
Want to see me? Yarra Trail Medical or Bell Street Family Medical

Dr Moz

20/03/2026

18/03/2026

12/03/2026

12/03/2026

09/03/2026

04/03/2026

03/03/2026

02/03/2026

27/02/2026

25/02/2026

16/02/2026

15/02/2026

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