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The sun gives moles their color. Many people are born with moles. A mole is a cluster of cells called melanocyte. If you have just one mole then you have a nevus, if you have more than one mole then you have a nevi. Nevi is the plural name of nevus.
Moles come in a variety of sizes, colors and shapes. Most moles are brown or black, but they can be blue, translucent, red or flesh toned. Some moles are flat to the skin and others form a bulb of flesh on the surface of the skin. Most of the time, moles appear in the first twenty to thirty years of life. Your age, race, and genetics are all factors in the amount of moles and types of moles that you have. Environment also plays a factor in the development of the mole. Sun exposure is one environmental factor that plays a role in the development of moles.
There are three types of moles that grow on the skin junctional, intradermal, and compound. Intradermal nevus are on the inner layer of skin called the dermis. Junctional nevus grow on the outside of the skin, on the epidermis. And then compound nevus are mixtures of the two. They don’t quite grow as junctional or intradermal.
The next type of mole gives a lot of people the most scare. It is the blue nevus. The blue nevus is blue-black in color and may people often mistake it for skin cancer.
One final way of classifying the mole or nevus, is by the regularities. Moles that don’t resemble normal symmetrical moles are called atypical or dysplastic moles. These moles sometimes become cancerous, and often resemble melanoma. You can remember the description if you know you’re ABC’s. A is for asymmetry, one side is not a duplicate of the other. B is for irregular borders, they tend to be uneven and jagged. C is the color, it’s not uniform throughout. D stands for diameter, which is bigger than most and greater than 6mm.
Make sure you check your mole if it is bleeding or you see differences in an old mole you need to go to your doctor. If you catch melanoma when you first find it is easier to cure. Just be aware of any irregularities of your mole.
