What Happens During a Skin Check? A Step-by-Step Guide.

If you’re booking an Ocean Grove skin check and want to know what to expect, this guide walks you through exactly what happens. Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world – about two in three of us will be diagnosed with some form of it during our lifetime. And yet, plenty of us are still putting off getting checked.

If that’s you, you’re not alone, and there’s usually a pretty understandable reason for it.

Why people delay (and why that’s okay to admit)

Research into why Australians avoid skin checks consistently turns up the same themes: anxiety about what might be found, embarrassment about undressing, a tendency to downplay concerns (“it’s probably nothing”), and a general preference to just deal with things ourselves.

None of that is surprising. Skin checks involve taking your clothes off in front of someone you may have only just met, and the whole thing can feel a bit exposing – literally and emotionally.

But, in reality, the appointment is almost always much more straightforward than people expect. So let’s go through exactly what happens.

Step 1: The conversation

Before anything else, your doctor will have a chat to you. This isn’t just small talk – the history they will take helps them understand your individual risk level and know where to look closely.

You can expect questions like:

• Have you had any skin cancers before, or has anyone in your family?
• Have you noticed any spots that are new, changing, itching, or bleeding?
• What’s your work and lifestyle been like – a lot of time outdoors?
• Have you ever used a solarium, or had significant sunburns in the past?

None of this needs a lot of preparation. Just answer as honestly as you can. If you’ve got a spot that’s been bothering you, this is the time to mention it – point it out and I’ll make sure it gets looked at closely.

Step 2: The examination

Once we’ve had the initial chat, the physical check begins.

What to wear: You’ll be asked to undress down to your underwear. A gown is provided, if you like. If there are areas you’d rather not have examined – for example, under underwear – just let me know. I’ll ask if there’s any spots you’ve noticed in areas concealed by underwear and if you’d like them examined. You’re always in control of what you’re comfortable with.

What we’re doing: I’ll work through your skin systematically, head to toe. This is called a total body skin examination. I’m looking at every surface – including your scalp, behind your ears, between your toes, and your nails – because skin cancer can develop in places that don’t get much attention.

What is a dermatoscope? For any spots that need a closer look, I use a dermatoscope – a handheld device with a magnifying lens and a light source. It lets me see the structure of a lesion below the surface of the skin, which significantly improves my ability to tell the difference between something harmless and something that needs further assessment. You can read more about how dermoscopy works here.

The exam itself is non-invasive and painless. Most people say it feels much less intrusive than they’d anticipated.

Step 3: If something looks suspicious

Most spots turn out to be completely benign – seborrhoeic keratoses (harmless age spots), dermatofibromas, and similar things are extremely common and don’t require any treatment.

But occasionally something warrants a closer look. If that happens, here are the likely next steps:

Monitoring: If a lesion looks borderline but not obviously concerning, I may photograph it and schedule a follow-up in a few months to check whether it’s changed.

Biopsy: If something looks like it needs a pathology result, I’ll take a small sample. A punch biopsy uses a circular blade to remove a piece of skin usually less than 4mm across, under a small local anaesthetic injection. The whole thing takes about 10–15 minutes. There may be a small stitch or two, and results usually come back within a few days. 

A shave biopsy involves a similar process, but uses a razor blade to shave a section of skin. No stitches are required for a shave biopsy.

Cryotherapy: For precancerous spots like solar keratoses, I’ll often use liquid nitrogen to freeze them off. You’ll feel a brief stinging sensation, and over the following week or two the area will blister, crust over, and heal. It’s quick and effective.

Referral: If I find something that needs a specialist opinion or surgical treatment, we’ll refer you on and explain clearly what the next step looks like.

Nothing happens without your understanding and consent. I’ll explain what I’ve found and what I recommend before doing anything.

Step 4: Your recall plan

A skin check isn’t just a once-off tick the box exercise, it’s the start of an ongoing plan.

How frequently you should be checked depends on your individual risk. The RACGP recommends:

• Very high risk (personal history of melanoma, multiple atypical moles): every 6 months, often with total body photography
• High risk (family history of melanoma, fair skin, history of significant sun exposure): every 12 months
• Average to lower risk: opportunistic checks every few years, combined with your own monthly skin self-checks

At the end of your appointment, I’ll give you a clear recommendation on when to come back.

Between appointments, it’s worth getting in the habit of checking your own skin regularly. Most melanomas are actually first noticed by patients or their partners, not by a doctor – so knowing what’s normal for you matters.

How long does it take? What does it cost?

A standard skin check appointment takes around 20–30 minutes. If I need to do a procedure on the day, it may run a little longer — I’ll let you know.

Medicare: There’s no specific Medicare item number for a “skin check” — it’s billed as a standard GP consultation, either a Level B (item 23, standard) or Level C (item 36, longer) consultation depending on the time involved. 

Any procedures done on the day – a biopsy, cryotherapy, or excision – attract their own separate Medicare rebates on top of the consultation fee. Usually, any procedures will be booked for a later date, but discussed at the time of the skin check.

Ready to book your Ocean Grove skin check?

If you’ve been putting this off, now’s as good a time as any. I see patients from Ocean Grove, Barwon Heads, the Bellarine Peninsula, and the wider Geelong region. The appointment is straightforward, it doesn’t take long, and finding something early makes an enormous difference to outcomes.