Dr. Lewis enjoys the balance between cosmetic surgery and dermatology. Dr. Lewis is a great advocate of preventative or proactive dermatology. He treats most dermatological conditions but specializes in the prevention of melanoma and other skin cancers. Melanomas are one of, if not, the most deadly cancers in the world. Almost all melanomas are on the skin and should be totally preventable and curable . But because dermatologists wait to biopsy them until often they become melanomas, the incidence and death rate for melanoma is skyrocketing.
Most dermatologists focus on catching melanoma in its earliest stages. They will show you or give you literature on the “A, B, C, D and E’s of melanoma.” Dr. Lewis feels that looking for melanoma, even at its earliest stages, is totally inadequate!
Melanomas must be stopped at the mole level before melanoma rather than waiting for it to go to melanoma!
All other cancers, such as lung, breast, colon and lymphoma, need special tests such as X-rays, MRI’s and blood tests to make the diagnosis. Melanoma and other skin cancers have a distinctive diagnostic advantage of being able to diagnose them by directly looking at them. Despite this, however, melanomas have the fastest growing death rate of all cancers in the world. This is primarily because dermatologists are looking for and teaching about melanoma not the mole before melanoma. This is wrong!
Dr. Lewis also advocates treating squamous cell (SCC) and basal cell (BCC) carcinomas before they become cancers. This requires aggressive liquid nitrogen applications for precancer or early SCC or BCC. This treatment should be done with a Q tip (not a spray) to add pressure for deeper lesions. Many precancers are like weeds and have deeper roots. Thus, one treatment may be inadequate to kill these roots. Timing for a second treatment of actinic keratosis is critical.
Similar to a weed, if any of the precancer is left, it will regrow. As soon as two to three weeks (not months), a second liquid nitrogen treatment should be performed. Using this technique virtually all precancers and most early squamous and basal cell carcinomas can be completely cured using liquid nitrogen.
Many dermatologists use surgery as their primary form of non-melanoma skin cancer treatment. Much of this unfortunately is dictated by the much higher reimbursement rate for surgical removal of skin cancer versus liquid nitrogen treatment. People who have tremendous amount of sun damage (you know who you are!), especially with lighter skin, develop numerous rough spots which, at first, can be picked off.
These are not early pre-cancers but rather hypertropic actinic keratosis which can change into a “rapid growth phase” and progress into a skin cancer. The two most common presentations for skin cancers are bleeding sores and pimples (as cancers grow, they block adjacent pores which create pimples). As you read about Dr. Lewis’ surgical expertise, you will recognize that there are few surgeons who could compare with Dr. Lewis’ quality. However, Dr. Lewis feels that “the only surgery better than Dr. Lewis’ surgery is no surgery!”
Dr. Lewis takes great pride in minimizing the number of skin cancers a patient gets. If you and your family have a propensity to skin cancer, you owe it to yourself to consult with Dr. Lewis.
Dr. Lewis applies this proactive mindset to all aspects of dermatology, dermatological surgeries, and cosmetic surgeries. If a lesion needs to be biopsied Dr. Lewis feels that it should be done not only to obtain a pathology but also to produce the best cosmetic result. Other medical conditions which Dr. Lewis treats are:
- Acne
- Ringworm
- Scars
- Wrinkles
- Insect Bites
- Cysts
- Eczema
- Skin Spots
- Nail Fungus
- Growths of the skin
- Warts
- Psoriasis
- Herpes
- Excessive hair
- Shingles
- Excessive sweating
- Skin cancer
- Moles
- Persistent rashes
- Keloids