Diagnosis

Diagnosing age spots might include:

• Visual inspection. Your doctor can usually diagnose age spots by looking at your skin. It's important to distinguish age spots from other skin disorders because the treatments differ and using the wrong procedure may delay other needed therapy.
• Skin biopsy. Your doctor might do other tests, such as removing a small sample of skin for examination in a lab (skin biopsy). This can help distinguish an age spot from other conditions, such as lentigo maligna, a type of skin cancer. A skin biopsy is usually done in a doctor's office, using a local anesthetic.