Protect Your Skin with Expert Tips

Summer in Ohio is a joyous time when you can finally get outside and soak up some rays. While you do, make sure you remember to be safe.

May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and it’s important to focus on both prevention and early detection.

“Most of the skin cancers that we deal with tend to be slow growing, but some can be rapidly progressive and life-threatening,” says Angela Funovits, a board-certified dermatologist at Allied Dermatology in Akron and Mayfield Heights. “Early detection helps to preserve health and safety.”

Funovits provides some tips about skin cancer prevention during the summer and beyond.

Why is skin cancer awareness important?

Angela Funovits: When dealing with skin cancers, we’re very fortunate in that for most, as long as they’re detected early, they’re usually not a huge problem for someone’s health. … But the life-threatening nature of melanomas is very real. Those are the skin cancers that if left untreated for too long, they can metastasize other places and cause serious health issues, including death. … The best measure is to try to prevent those things from happening in the first place by practicing smart sun safety.

Can you give some specific guidelines on going out in the sun?

AF: The more sun exposure you get over a lifetime, the more your skin receives ultraviolet damage from that sunlight. … The general rule is to err on the side of caution and to try to protect yourself if you are outdoors. … For sunscreens, you want a broad-spectrum sunscreen that is at least SPF 30 or higher, and you want to put enough on. The general recommendation is to be reapplying every two hours or if you have been sweating or in the water. Even if it’s a water-resistant sunscreen, it can be a bit compromised by those things.

A lot of patients like spray sunscreens because of the convenience. But we tend to see more sunburns in the patients using those if they only use a light mist and forget to reapply. A lot of people won’t get very good coverage. For that type of sunscreen, it’s good to spray enough to the point where it’s dripping a little on the skin and then rub in the excess.

If you’re using a lotion on the body, it should be about an ounce, or if it’s just the face, it should be about a teaspoon. If someone is working out or doing yard work, and they know they’re going to sweat …  it’s nice to choose a mineral-based sunscreen. Those are the ones with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, and those tend to be far less irritating if they do happen to run into the eyes.

Can you talk about physical sun protection?

AF: We see a lot of skin cancers, especially in men, on the top of the head as they get older, as they’ve lost more hair. It certainly is a place where the sun hits very directly. One of the best ways of protecting that area is with a hat. It’s a good rule of thumb, if you’re out in the sun, to try to wear a wide-brimmed hat, one that ideally covers both the face and the ears, and even the back of the neck if possible. UV protective eyewear is great and so are UV protective shirts and shawls.

If people are wearing hats, should they still be applying sunscreen to their faces?

AF: Even if you have the area of skin shaded — so for instance, if you’re wearing a wide-brimmed hat — the face is still exposed to ambient UV rays. So it is still a good idea to be applying sunscreen to those exposed areas. Ideal sun protection is accomplished by physical protection in addition to sunscreen.

Should people be wearing sunscreen at all times of the day?

AF: It’s most critical during those peak hours of sun, or when the UV index is very high. But the truth is that even small amounts of exposure add up over time. My personal preference is to wear sunscreen at all times. I even wear it if it’s cloudy. That’s the time during which a lot of people don’t think about it. But we’re still driving in our cars, we’re still getting UV light through windows and during short walks outside. The more you protect yourself during those times, the less of that cumulative damage you’ll get over time.

Can you describe treatments and surgeries for skin cancers?

AF: Many of the skin cancers that we diagnose end up being treated surgically. … For skin cancers that are not excessively large, we sometimes will treat them with regular excisions, where we take about a 4-millimeter margin on either side of the skin cancer and do what’s called an elliptical excision, where we remove a football-shaped piece of skin … and we confirm that everything was treated.

In some cases, it can be appropriate to treat by what we call electrodesiccation and curettage where we numb the skin. We use a curette to do some superficial scraping of that skin. And we use an electrodesiccation tool, which kind of burns the skin or destroys some of the superficial skin with heat.

Sometimes we can treat it with topical chemotherapy creams, if a skin cancer is superficial enough. … Everything has to be taken on a case-by-case basis, and we’re always trying to do what’s best for that specific patient.