Your Guide To Getting a Plantar Wart Removed

Plantar warts affect the bottom of the feet and are quite prevalent in children and adolescents. It is caused by a virus, human papillomavirus (HPV), which infects the skin and is often seen on the bottom of the foot.

Cuts or a break in your skin are a common way for this virus to enter your skin. Then it develops the unsightly, scratchy lump that is both painful and uncomfortable. There are several procedures for removing a plantar wart, including over-the-counter medicines and plantar wart removal surgery.

Plantar Wart Symptoms

If you believe you have a plantar wart, you should see a physician since it may be tricky to determine the scope of the wart’s growth under the surface. A plantar wart may present with the following symptoms:

  • Localized foot discomfort in a thicker region of the sole
  • A rough, bumpy, and spongy lesions with little pinpoint black dots inside the wart’s body, although not always visible.
  • A solid border surrounds the spongy tissue.
  • The surface is smooth and grey-yellow or brown in tone.
  • Frequently positioned over pressure points or bony prominences on foot, such as the heel and ball of the foot.
  • Typically flat as a result of pressure
  • Numerous warts may fuse to produce “mosaic” warts.

Treatment For Plantar Warts

After your podiatrist diagnoses your plantar wart, they will prescribe treatment options. It is essential to get medical advice before removing the wart, and trying to do so without seeing a doctor or podiatrist can injure your foot. Because a viral infection causes plantar warts, they are infectious and can be passed from person to person. Never attempt to self-remove a plantar wart by cutting it off.

Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy is typically beneficial when warts are frozen with liquid nitrogen, which darkens the wart. While this is a reasonably quick treatment, the freezing feeling may cause pain and discomfort. The chemical causes a blister to develop around your wart within a week or two, and the dead tissue peels off. Additionally, cryotherapy may boost your immune system’s ability to battle viral warts.

Salicylic Acid

Salicylic acid is a beta hydroxy acid topical solution often found in acne-based treatments. It works by eliminating dead skin cells that might block your pores at times.

Prescription-strength salicylic acid wart medicines function by gradually eliminating layers of a wart. Additionally, they may boost your immune system’s capacity to battle the wart.

Your doctor will certainly recommend that you administer the medication routinely at home, with occasional office visits in between. These solutions gradually remove the skin surrounding the wart until it is gone, which may take several weeks.

Swift Therapy

SWIFT is a medical apparatus that uses a concentrated microwave signal to eliminate warts, verrucae, and papillomas from the skin. The microwave signal is adjusted to a specific depth to ensure treatment is limited to the wart.

A condition known as Heat Shock happens during therapy. When a wart releases proteins into the circulatory system, the immune system recognises the source of the HP Virus infection and begins fighting it off.

Curettage: Surgical Wart Removal

After injecting a local anaesthetic, the physician destroys the wart using electrical or ultrasonic equipment and removes the residue with a curette. This procedure is likely to result in a scar. Wart removal is not suggested since the process may leave a painful scar, and warts often reappear in the scar tissue.

The curettage wound will heal in roughly 2–3 weeks. The scar may first seem red and elevated but will often fade in colour and size with time.

Over-The-Counter Treatments

Plantar warts are only approximately 50% successful when treated with over-the-counter medications. Additionally, they include topical salicylic acid therapies in gels, ointments, or lotions. This will result in the wart progressively peeling off over a few weeks. An over-the-counter freezing spray is also available, but it does not penetrate as deeply as the doctor’s procedure.

Prevention

Plantar warts may be caused by various factors, including not changing socks regularly, going barefoot, and not thoroughly drying the feet. Fortunately, you may avoid acquiring plantar warts by following these steps:

  • Avoid walking barefoot in public swimming pools and changing rooms.
  • Throughout the day, change your socks.
  • Regularly inspect your feet for any strange growths.
  • Maintain clean and dry feet.
  • You should not touch warts directly.

To Conclude

While plantar warts may ultimately go away on their own, these plantar warts often last between two and twelve months. You should get treatment if they are aggravating and painful and because plantar warts have been known to recur over time if left untreated.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.