How much does it cost to remove a mole in Belgium?

Last year, I finally decided to go through beauty surgery in Belgium, well I am not talking about plastic surgery here, but a small operation to remove one of the moles on my face. 🙂

I always had 2 very noticeable and black moles on my face, they often give me some concerns about beauty and health (such as whether or not they will mutate). One of them is even in the middle of my face.

In 2017, we moved to another city and I started visiting a new dermatologist. She gave me the reassurance that it does not look like a mole that is going to turn into cancer, but if it was her, she would remove it, as it is quite cheap and safe to do it in Belgium.

She recommended me a surgeon in Vilvoord. I asked about laser removal also, but according to her, my specific mole will be difficult to be removed completely using laser, as it is rather big and black.

In the end, the surgery was quite successful, the scar is hardly visible now.

Today, I will briefly talk about the process and the cost of the operation.

Make an appointment with the surgeon

The only requirement of the mole removal is no direct sunlight after the surgery, so it is recommended to make the appointment in the winter.

My surgeon is a very experienced doctor, he was also very familiar with the operation.

On the day of the surgery

I went to the clinic by car after work, it is very easy to access with minimum waiting, it is like visiting your family doctor, there is no complicated administration like in the big hospital.

The doctor was so good at his job, after 5 minutes, he already started with the stitching, he told me that my mole was not a difficult one, some patients have moles near the eye, or on the neck, then it might take more time.

After 15 minutes, I paid (100 euro in cash) and then started driving home.

After the surgery 

Although my dermatologist already confirmed that my mole was not mutating. But the common medical practice in Belgium is that, since you already cut down the mole, then the doctor must send it to the lab to test and reassure you there is no disease.

If the lab diagnoses cancer cells, they will inform your family doctor, so you can be called back to do a further check. This is a great approach to diagnose early diseases at a low cost.

In the end, my family doctor did not inform me, so my mole was healthy 🙂

After the surgery, the surgeon gave me some advanced bandages, he then told me one hundred times that no direct sun was allowed. If I had to go out for any reason, I should put on sunscreen.

Something hilarious, the next day when I went back to work, my colleagues asked me if I got violence from my husband, I explained I had surgery to remove a mole, they were like “What mole? I never noticed!” 😀

Remove the stitch

One week after the surgery, you need to remove the stitch. You can go to your family doctor or any general practice near your place to get it removed.

One week after the surgery, before removing the stitch:

There will be some scars after removing the stitch, no direct sunlight allowed at the scar.

After removing the stitch:

2 weeks after the surgery:

I just checked the pictures from last year, In the first 3 months, there was still this reddish mark, but it faded with time, after 6 months, it was barely visible.

How it looks now:

The bill and the insurance

This was a super simple surgery, I am also quite happy with the cost and the result. The final cost involved:

1. The surgery cost 100 euro in total, my health insurance covered 56.19 euro, my expense was 43.81 euro
2. The mole was sent to the lab for further analysis, I got a bill with 14.78 euro
3. I went to my family doctor to remove the stitch, which cost 27 euro in total, the insurance covered 22.78 euro, my expense was 4.22 euro

In total, my net cost for this operation is 43.81+14.78+4.22 =62.81 euro, the Belgian health insurance is quite awesome! Check my blog post about what kind of benefit you can get from Belgian insurance.

Write at last

I always thought this kind of operation will be rather expensive in Belgium, but in the end, it seems to be even cheaper than in China!

My surgeon is in Vilvoord, if you have similar intentions and are interested in his contact details, you can write to me at lin.jiang1990@gmail.com.

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