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Do not let warts on your face, hands, or feet make you feel embarrassed and self-conscious as they can be hard to cover and even turn painful. Schedule a consultation with an experienced dermatologist at the Century Medical and Dental Center to get your warts diagnosed and accurately treated. The top-rated dermatologists NY provide the best tips on how to remove a wart, including home remedies along with medication to get rid of them. You can look forward to getting relief from painful plantar and genital warts at sensitive places and get the best advice to keep them from spreading to other parts of your body if you already have one.
Warts are small, raised bumps, mostly noncancerous growths that appear on the skin when it gets infected with any of the viruses from the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. The virus triggers extra cell growth that makes the outer layer of the skin thick and hard in that spot.
Warts can grow anywhere on the skin as they spread by touch. They are frequently found on hands or feet. Rough-in texture, these warts also feature a pattern of tiny black dots that are small clotted blood vessels. The type of wart also depends on where it is and what it looks like.
A wart can take as long as two to six months to develop after exposure to the virus. Common warts are usually harmless and eventually disappear on their own. In certain cases, they become bothersome and need medical attention.
People with compromised immune systems or those with HIV are at high risk of contracting the HPV virus. Children are more vulnerable to warts as their immune system is weak and still developing.
The location of the wart and its appearance determines what sort of wart a person has. Some warts can look similar to cancerous growths. If your wart changes color or shapes quickly, you must seek medical assistance. The doctor will examine the war and may even take a skin sample for testing.
Plantar warts are also caused by the HPV virus. These warts usually develop on the bottom of the feet, especially the weight-bearing parts of the feet, such as heels. Plantar warts can grow in clusters and tend to be flat as the pressure on the feet can make warts grow inwards.
Plantar warts are recognized by their hard, thickened skin. They are also painful or tender as the pressure on the feet pushes them further when you walk or stand. Plantar warts also have tiny black dots, often called seeds that are blood clots in small blood vessels. Seeking medical help is necessary for treating plantar warts as they are painful, and it needs more than home remedies to get rid of them.
Genital warts are sexually transmitted conditions of the HPV virus. You can get them by having sex with someone already suffering from them. Like plantar warts, genital warts can also grow alone or in clusters and often look like cauliflower. They can spread, even if you cannot see them.
They mostly appear where the sexual activity has taken place, such as groin, mouth, or anus areas. They can appear in the vulva, vagina, cervix, and groin in women and penis, thigh and scrotum in men. Genital warts cause symptoms like itchiness, tenderness, pain, or bleeding.
People with weakened immune systems are more likely to get warts, such as those with HIV or those who take medications for conditions like RA, psoriasis, and IBD, as their bodies may not be able to fight the HPV virus.
If you have a stronger immune system, your body may be able to fight the infection well, and warts will go away on their own, but it will take some time as they can spread to other parts of the body.
Home treatments are an effective means to cure warts. Consulting your primary care doctor or a dermatologist will help you understand the type of warts you have and how to get rid of them without going for medications or invasive procedures.
Here are some tried and tested at-home treatments for getting rid of warts easily and fast.
It is an affordable, accessible, and safe treatment option that helps to eliminate warts without causing any side effects. Salicylic acid peels the skin away in layers that remove the wart over time. The acid also irritates the wart area, which encourages the immune system to respond to the virus.
It is an over-the-counter product that can be bought easily in form of a gel, liquid, or a patch. You should apply the acid once a day after soaking the wart in warm water. You can get rid of the dead skin that develops on top of the wart by filing the skin with an emery board or pumice stone. Disposing of the emery board or pumice stones is necessary as reusing them can spread viruses and warts.
Warts can be frozen with an over-the-counter product that uses liquid nitrogen in the form of gel or a spray. You have to swab a small amount of liquid nitrogen onto the wart. You may need to repeat the process a few times before the wart disappears.
Cover the wart with silver duct tape for several days, soak it with water and rub the wart or file it away to remove the dead skin. Sticking duct tape to the wart peels away layers of skin and irritates it to kick start the immune system. Repeating the process every 5 to 6 days can get rid of warts with duct tape.
This approach can take several rounds of treatments to deliver desired results. If it works, the wart should go away within 4 weeks.
Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) and spread to other parts of the body if you are not careful. The virus can also transmit from person to person. The best way to prevent getting warts is by reducing your risk of getting them.
You can reduce the risk of developing warts by:
Getting rid of warts and controlling the risk factors can keep the virus from spreading.
Only home remedies are not enough. You should also see your doctor ensure that the bump on your skin is a wart and not a sign of skin cancer.
Having a lot of common warts or genital warts in sensitive places, excessively painful or bleeding warts and diabetes can complicate things, and you must consult a dermatologist. In some cases, removing plantar warts is not easy, and you must seek medical assistance.
The expert doctors recommend the best ways to remove the wart, whatever type you have, and prevent them from coming back again. They can treat warts with powerful acids and medications better as compared to over-the-counter treatment and even perform minor surgery and use the laser to burn warts off.
Visit experienced and board-certified skin specialists at the Century Medical and Dental Center to learn about practicing hygiene and avoiding the spread of infections that cause bumps and warts. The best dermatologists are trained to take care of your skin, nails, and hair and provide treatment for all types of diseases and disorders related to your skin. They offer the best advice on preventing your warts from turning painful, getting rid of them as soon as possible, and helping you live a better quality of life.
SHARE THIS POST Page Updated on Dec 18, 2022 by Dr. Dvorkina (Primary Care Doctor) of Century Medical & Dental Center
Century Medical and Dental Center is an accredited healthcare facility in NY that operates in accordance with Article 28, a public health law. This law regulates and recognizes accreditation for public healthcare facilities, ensuring they are licensed and operated correctly. By undergoing the Article 28 process and achieving accreditation, Century Medical and Dental Center demonstrates its commitment to meeting the highest standards of care.
As a multidisciplinary medical center, we have highly qualified doctors, nurses, and support staff who are working hard to provide the best medical care to patients in Midtown Manhattan, NY, Downtown Brooklyn, NY, including Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.