by Dr Rajesh Shah, MD

Vitiligo is not common in most parts of the world, especially in the western countries. As a result, many regular doctors are not adequately trained to handle or treat vitiligo patients. Some doctors may not have a ‘clinical eye’ to diagnose vitiligo without investigations. Most doctors may not have a simple devise such as a Wood’s lamp, which can help the doctor to diagnose vitiligo without a biopsy.  

It is important for you to find out answers to some of the following questions, when it comes to the treatment of vitiligo:

1. Ask you doctor if he or she is confident about the diagnosis of vitiligo in your case.
2. Ask if your doctor has experience in at least examining about 100 cases of vitiligo. It is not necessary that the doctor must have ‘cured’ all the cases.
3. Find out if your doctor is able to give some clue about the cause of vitiligo. It is should be possible for your doctor to have some idea about   probable cause (e.g. genetic, hormonal, auto-immune, stress triggered, chemical induced, etc.) of vitiligo in your case. One who may be absolutely clueless about the cause may not know much about the disease itself. 
4. Find about what experience your doctor has about the treatment of vitiligo’. It is necessary that your doctor must have treated at least 50 or more cases for good length of time, in order that the doctor has good clinical experience about the behavior of vitiligo.
5. Please ask your doctor about the scope of treatment in your case. Every doctor who treats vitiligo should be able to give an idea about the success, scope and limitation of the treatment for vitiligo.
6. Find out about the success rate of the doctor in the treatment of vitiligo. Your doctor should have some fair success rate of minimum 30%.
7. In case your doctor is a conventional dermatologist or a GP, please find out if he is familiar with the scope of treatment with homeopathy or other alternative medicines for Vitiligo.
8. Find out if your doctor has a facility of taking photos of your case time to time and store them for future reference. As, it becomes difficult to appreciate changes in vitiligo spots if they are not documented regularly.
9. Find out about the adverse effects of medicines that your doctor is going to prescribe.
10. Find out what will happen after stopping the medicines, in case your doctor is prescribing cortisone. Many times, the doctors may not tell you that vitiligo could flare up all the more on stopping cortisone.
11. Try to get a reference from a medical college hospital or from some other patient who may have experience with a particular doctor.
12. Ask your doctor if he is able to guide you about diet, sunlight exposure and other dos and don’ts about vitiligo treatment.
13. Find out if your doctor is able to counsel you about how to cope up with vitiligo. 

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