If you have not been to a dermatologist in years, you might not know the wonders of liquid nitrogen and duct tape.
Having a few skin spots, both my SO and I had our 5 year check up at the dermatologists.
First of all, I want my own mini-spray can of liquid nitrogen - that stuff works miracles on skin blemishes, minor (benign) skin cancers spots, aging spots and in my SO’s case, even a wart on his foot!
They spray it on (feels like a spurt of really cold air) and a few days later, all of that dead skin disappears and your new skin magically pops up to replace the old. Quite nice and easy process! Highly recommend it!
And duct tape? Was told by dermatologist that SO should put a cream on (we have to pick up at the drug store) and then wrap with small piece of duct tape (not the clear duct tape, just the silver or black) as there is something in the glue that helps dissolve warts. News to us.
So, if you see a guy in Vegas by the pool with some duct tape on his toe, it is not a red-neck trying to fix a hole in his sock.
Any dermatologist would be against the average lay person treating their skin lesions with liquid nitrogen. You’re really only guessing at what the spot that you’re treating is- it could be a skin cancer, including melanoma, and freezing it can delay necessary treatment, endangering your life. And liquid nitrogen doesn’t treat actual skin cancer, only pre-cancers (actinic keratoses). But by all means, feel free to go nuts with the duct tape on your warts- that’s not going to potentially kill you.
You can’t really just buy a spray bottle LN2. It has such a low boiling point that it’s kind of hard to keep around even in most dewars. Plus, if it’s not vented properly, the container will explode.
Yes, despite attempts at bribery, they would not sell me a can.
They did mention it wouldn’t last long anyway - apparently this stuff evaporates rather quickly and needs to be refilled on a daily basis in these small cans.
Oh well.
Plus there is that little annoying problem of these things sometimes exploding…which most likely would cause skin damage that couldn’t be solved by spraying the little can anymore.
Years ago when my brother was a physics major, he used to bring home thermoses full of liquid nitrogen to play with. Freezing random things instantly to the point that they would shatter like glass was great fun. (We are probably lucky we didn’t get hurt.)
It is really fun to play with, though- you can freeze a roach and it’ll look dead, and then a while later it’ll come back to life when it thaws out. Also, throwing LN2 on the carpet is fun, too. Psssshhhooo!
And good to know!