I nearly lost my jaw over a ‘white spot’ on my lip: Here’s my story

A beautician has revealed how a ‘dodgy’ white spot on her lip ended up being skin cancer – and it would have gone unnoticed had she not pushed for a proper diagnosis.

Melissa Floss, 52, from Western Australia, told FEMAIL she went to several medical professionals before someone finally worked out what was wrong. 

‘I went to my GP and she told me it was nothing. That didn’t sit right with me so I went to my dentist for a second opinion and [they] sent me home as well,’ Melissa said.

Melissa felt like she was being brushed off, so sought out a third opinion from another general practitioner.

‘If she had told me it was nothing I probably would have just stopped asking questions,’ she said.

But this GP didn’t fob her off.

Instead, they used a special tool to closely examine the spot on Melissa’s lip – which at first glance just looked like a lighter patch of rough skin – and referred her to a dermatologist.

‘The doctor told me immediately that it was skin cancer – but that he wasn’t sure how far along it was,’ she said.

The cancer was a squamous cell skin cancer – and while it wasn’t deadly, it could have caused more serious problems and spread if left untreated.

‘I was told it was in my tissue and that if it had gone too far they would have to take my jaw,’ she said.

Terrified, Melissa paid cash for the best surgeon she could find to operate quickly.

‘The public waiting list was too long,’ she said.

The morning she went in for her surgery, doctors warned her she could wake up missing her lower jaw.

That was all she could think about when they wheeled her into surgery.

‘I work in the beauty industry – my face is everything,’ she said.

When she woke up hours later she asked to see her face. While it was hard to look at, she was relieved to see herself still in one piece.

‘It was confronting but I knew I still had a jaw. I couldn’t see behind all of the Band-Aid and bandages and stuff,’ she said.

The mass was just 1.7cm by 1.6cm – and was totally removed with a large enough margin that no further treatments were needed. 

Melissa has warned a number of her patients about suspicious-looking spots during her decades in the beauty industry.

Many have come back to thank her for raising the alarm.

‘I can’t diagnose things, but if I think something looks wrong I will let them know that they should think about getting it checked for peace of mind,’ she said.

After her own journey, it has made her even more persistent.

‘If you don’t think something is right, and you keep being dismissed, then get a second or third opinion,’ she said.

She also now gets regular mole mapping done on her body, and is refusing to take any more chances. 

Melissa’s experience comes amid calls for beauty therapists and aestheticians’ skills to be better used to help screen for potentially deadly melanomas and skin cancers.

Professionals in the sector say this will take pressure off an already stressed healthcare system.

Sydney-based skin genomics and aesthetics specialist Stefan Mazy, who is the CEO of DermR Health Solutions, said beauty therapists and aestheticians are becoming potential life-savers by raising concerns.

‘People who work in the beauty, anti-ageing and hairdressing industries are in a prime position to spot skin abnormalities on a client’s face, neck, ear and scalp areas during routine visits,’ Mr Mazy said.

‘Therapists spend up to one hour at a time in direct contact with the client’s skin multiple times a year, and they can also access hard-to-see spots. With such intimate and frequent interactions, they would know skin better than the client’s GP or dermatologist.’

Mr Mazy has more than 15 years’ experience in the aesthetics industry, specialising in skin genomics training and education, and over five years dedicated specifically to skin cancer and genomics.

He is also developing a new skin cancer diagnostic tool that will enable aestheticians, nurses and allied health professionals to be able to screen if a lesion could be cancerous.

‘A therapist noticing a suspicious spot could be the difference between life and death for someone,’ he said.

‘We know 90 per cent of melanomas can be treated successfully if caught early, and early detection is associated with high survival rates.’

Maria Enna-Cocciolone, the CEO of Australian skincare brand O Cosmedics, and her team devote considerable time and effort in educating therapists not only about products, but about skin health, and she is aware of many therapists who have identified melanomas.

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‘A therapist can be the difference between catching something early or sadly catching it when it’s all too late,’ Ms Enna-Cocciolone said.

‘Over the years I have heard hundreds of stories of where therapists have highlighted concerning spots, moles and lesions, and have insisted on a doctor’s clearance before performing treatments and even active skincare only to find their suspicions confirmed.

‘Given the scope of treatments therapists perform, many have identified life-threatening basal cell carcinomas and saved many a life and intense treatment trauma that comes with late diagnosis.’

Mr Mazy said when a therapist notices a suspicious spot or change in the skin and starts a conversation, the client can be encouraged to take the next step and have it properly examined.

Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and treatments for melanoma and other skin cancers are the largest cancer cost in the healthcare system, costing more than $1.7 billion each year.