If the diagnosis of a skin condition is unclear or if you are at high risk for having skin cancer, your doctor may take a sample of the growth and examine it a skin biopsy. A biopsy is usually done if a skin growth is darker than the skin surrounding it, appears as an irregular patch on the skin, bleeds, or is large and growing rapidly. Proper diagnosis of plantar warts is important. Some wart treatments can cause scarring.
Not all warts need to be treated. They generally go away on their own within months or years. This may be because, with time, your immune system is able to destroy the human papillomavirus that causes warts. The goal of wart treatment is to destroy or remove the wart without creating scar tissue, which can be more painful than the wart itself. How a wart is treated depends on the type of wart, its location, and its symptoms. Also important is your willingness to follow a course of treatment that can last for weeks or months.
Wart treatment isn't always successful. Even after a wart shrinks or disappears, warts may return or spread to other parts of the body. This is because most treatments only destroy the wart and don't kill the virus that causes the wart. Many people don't treat warts unless they are unsightly or painful. You can treat warts yourself with:. If your child has a wart, treatment probably isn't needed. That's because warts often go away on their own. But if the wart is on your child's face or genitals or is painful or spreading, your child should see a doctor for treatment.
Otherwise, it is usually safe to treat a wart at home with duct tape or salicylic acid. If the wart doesn't start to improve within 2 weeks, see your doctor. For more information, see Home Treatment.
If you have diabetes or peripheral arterial disease, talk to your doctor before you try home treatment for warts. It's important to distinguish a plantar wart from a callus before choosing a treatment. Wart treatment applied to a callus may be painful or create scar tissue. Plantar warts are often hard to treat because they lie beneath the skin.
A doctor may need to pare the skin over a wart to help the medicine penetrate the wart. The main way to prevent warts is to avoid contact with the human papillomavirus HPV that causes warts.
If you are exposed to this virus, you may or may not get warts, depending on how susceptible you are to the virus. Home treatment is often the first treatment used for warts. When done properly, home treatment is usually less painful than surgical treatment. If you are uncertain that a skin growth is a wart, or if you have diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, or other major illnesses that may affect your treatment, it is best to see a health professional.
Salicylic acid treatments are often effective. They aren't very painful, aren't very expensive, and usually don't cause scarring.
Salicylic acid is a good treatment for children because it isn't very painful. For treatment to be successful, salicylic acid must be applied on a regular basis, usually for a number of months.
Folk remedies, such as rubbing a wart with a bean, may have an effect on a wart. But such treatment may simply coincide with the natural disappearance of a wart. If you decide to treat your warts, both nonprescription and prescription medicines are available.
Other medicines used for warts include 5-fluorouracil, which is more often used on genital warts , and cimetidine. Cimetidine can be taken by mouth orally or as an injection. As with any medicine, talk to your doctor before using a wart medicine if you are or may be pregnant.
Some wart medicines may cause birth defects. Surgery is an option if home treatment and treatment at your doctor's office have failed. Surgery for warts is usually quick and effective. No single surgical method is more effective than another in removing warts. Generally, doctors start with the surgical method that is least likely to cause scarring. A wart may return after surgery, because surgery removes the wart but doesn't destroy the virus that causes the wart.
The type of surgery used to remove warts depends on the warts' type, location, and size. Curettage, electrosurgery, and laser surgery are more likely than cryotherapy to leave scars, so they are usually reserved for hard-to-remove or recurring warts. If you have a large area of warts, curettage may not be an effective treatment. Cryotherapy , which uses a very cold liquid to freeze a wart, is the most commonly used procedure that doesn't involve medicine to treat warts.
This procedure poses little risk of scarring but can be painful. Gabica MD - Family Medicine. Author: Healthwise Staff. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor.
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Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. Updated visitor guidelines. You are here Home » Warts and Plantar Warts. Top of the page. Condition Overview Is this topic for you? What are warts, and what causes them?
How are warts spread? What are the symptoms? How are warts diagnosed? How are they treated? But if you have warts that are painful or spreading, or if you are bothered by the way they look, your treatment choices include: Using a home treatment such as salicylic acid or duct tape.
You can get these without a prescription. Putting a stronger medicine on the wart, or getting a shot of medicine in it. Freezing the wart cryotherapy. Removing the wart with surgery electrosurgery, curettage, laser surgery. Health Tools Health Tools help you make wise health decisions or take action to improve your health.
Decision Points focus on key medical care decisions that are important to many health problems. Warts: Should I Treat Warts? Cause A wart develops when a human papillomavirus HPV infects the outer layer of skin and causes the skin cells to grow rapidly. Can common warts on hands or fingers be spread to the genitals and cause genital warts?
But common warts don't cause the type of genital warts that lead to high-risk cancers. Symptoms Warts occur in a variety of shapes and sizes. Common warts usually appear singly or in groups on the hands, although they may grow on any part of the body.
They usually are rough, gray-brown, dome-shaped growths. Plantar warts can develop on any part of the foot. As the callus and wart get larger, walking can become painful, much like walking with a pebble in your shoe. When pressure from standing or walking pushes a plantar wart beneath the skin's surface, a layer of thick, tough skin similar to a callus develops over it.
Sometimes dark specks are visible beneath the surface of the wart. Flat warts are usually found on the face, arms, or legs.
They are small usually smaller than the eraser on the end of a pencil. There are usually several in one area. They have flat tops and can be pink, light brown, or light yellow. Flat warts are often spread by shaving. Filiform warts , a kind of flat wart, can grow around the mouth, nose, and beard area.
The surface of this type of wart has many flesh-colored, finger-shaped growths. Periungual warts are found under and around the toenails and fingernails.
This constellation of histopathologic changes suggests that involution was in progress long before blackening of the warts occurred. Arch Dermatol. Coronavirus Resource Center. Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience.
By continuing to use our site, or clicking "Continue," you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy Continue. Twitter Facebook. This Issue. January Domnitz, MD ; Richard K. This virus, which affects the superficial layer of skin, is a contagious virus and can spread from person to person through direct and indirect contact.
If you have close physical contact with someone who has the virus, you may also develop a seed wart. Because seed warts can appear on the bottom of the feet, the toes, and heel, you can also pick up the virus in public areas.
These areas include swimming pools, changing rooms, and workout gyms. A floor surface can become contaminated when a person with a seed wart walks across it barefoot. This allows the infection to spread to other people who walk barefoot on the same surface. Some people are at a higher risk for seed warts. These include people:. A doctor can usually identify a seed wart from its appearance. Your doctor may specifically check to see if the wart contains dark spots or blood clots.
This can determine whether you have a seed wart or another type of skin lesion. However, you should see a doctor if you experience any bleeding or pain from the wart.
Seed warts found on the bottom of the foot can cause intense pain. Your doctor can confirm or rule out a seed wart. Wear well-cushioned, comfortable shoes to reduce pressure on the bottom of your feet. This can relieve pain and make it easier to walk or stand. Also, stay off of your feet as much as possible until the pain subsides. Another option is over-the-counter medications containing salicylic acid Compound W Freeze Off and Dr.
Duct tape is another remedy for seed warts. This method gradually removes layers of the wart. To use this method:. For a hard-to-treat seed wart, your doctor may remove the wart using one of the following methods:. You may receive an injection of interferon alfa Intron A, Roferon A to boost your immune system, or the topical immunotherapy diphencyprone Diphenylcyclopropenone.
This vaccine has been used to treat warts.
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