The Best Ways to Get Rid of Plantar Warts for Good

Plantar warts are painful and affect your normal movement and activities. Do not waste time in trying out home remedies that do not work and land you in even more pain, discomfort and embarrassment. Visit your primary care doctor in NYC to get your warts checked and find the best solution for your condition. The experienced and board-certified specialists at the Century Medical and Dental Center come up with the best ways to get rid of plantar warts for good with effective treatment and hygiene practices.

Warts are a common skin condition. They can appear on the nose, fingers, toes, or anywhere in between on the skin. They are more than an abnormal growth as they are an outcome of an infection, a virus often associated with cervical cancer. The virus can enter the body through a cut or break in the skin and form an ugly, rough bump.

What Are Plantar Warts?

Plantar warts are small growths that usually appear on the heels or parts of the foot that receive the most pressure when you are standing or walking. This pressure may also cause plantar warts to grow deep, inward, beneath a hard, thick layer of skin. Clustered plantar warts are called mosaic warts.

Plantar warts are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus enters your body through tiny cuts, breaks, or other weak spots on the bottom of the feet. As it is contagious, this virus spreads through contact. Touching anything that has had contact with a wart can circulate it.

Most warts are not dangerous and go away on their own without requiring any treatment, but when they show up on the feet, they can be painful as they are not visible. It is best to get them checked by your primary care doctor to avoid any complications.

Because of their tricky location, such as soles, heels, toes, and balls of feet, plantar warts send a painful reminder of their presence with every single step. You feel like walking with a rock in shoes, even if you are barefoot due to the uncomfortable presence in your feet.

Planter Wart or a Callus

Plantar warts are often mistakes for a callus. Calluses result from repeated friction against the skin. They can appear anywhere on the hands and feet.

A plantar wart is painful when squeezed, while a callus is not. Also, calluses can be removed with abrasive objects like pumice stones, nail files, and emery boards to remove thick, rough skin. Plantar warts cannot be removed this way as they are deeper, and you may only be able to remove the outer skin. Rubbing them may get rid of the outer layer, but the seed of the wart is deep inside the sole, and it can come back again. Wart seeds or tiny black spots are actually blood vessels that can bleed if you are not careful.

Treating Plantar Warts

The best way to deal with warts is by leaving them alone. Like other warts, most plantar warts eventually go away on their own, but it might take some time, even as long as a year or two.

If your plantar warts are painful, getting bigger, or spreading to other parts of the feet, seek medical attention as you need immediate relief. Many over-the-counter wart removal creams and solutions are available in the pharmacy, but in a majority of cases, they fail to deliver effective results. Plantar warts are too deep into the skin, and even if the outer layer is removed, the seed of the wart remains deep in the sole, and it will grow again.

Salicylic acid, duct tape, apple cider vinegar, and tree oil are some of the most commonly used home remedies, but they may be unable to help if the warts are too deep inside. Also, removing plantar warts with home remedies takes a long time.

Do not take self-medication as over-the-counter creams and solutions contain acids and chemicals that can harm your skin. Too many chemicals can damage the surrounding area and open up the skin for further infections. It can even result in the spread of plantar warts. Visit your primary care doctor to have your warts examined and to identify the virus causing them to prevent them from reforming.

The Best Treatment for Plantar Warts

These treatments are designed to stimulate the immune system, detect the virus causing warts and offer long-term relief. They include:

Prescription medication

Your doctor will recommend strong wart removal medications that are most effective in getting rid of warts as compared to over-the-counter ones. These prescription medications work the same way by peeling away a planter wart layer by layer.

You can apply these creams and solutions to warts at home as per the doctor’s instructions and schedule a follow-up appointment to ensure the medication is having desired outcomes.

Freezing

Freezing a wart using cryotherapy is an effective option for getting rid of these unwanted growths. Liquid nitrogen is applied to the wart with a spray or cotton swab. It destroys the tissue and causes a small blister to form over the spot. The dead skin goes away within a week or two.

Freezing off a plantar wart is more painful than freezing common warts. It is because they are deeper and harder to reach with the chemical. In some cases, multiple sessions spaced two to four weeks apart may be required to remove the entire wart.

Immunotherapy

Plantar warts are your immune system’s response to an HPV infection. This mode of treatment uses medications or solutions to kick start an immune reaction to fight away the planter wart-causing viruses or agents.

When other treatments fail, the doctor can inject a substance into the wart or apply a topical solution to stimulate the immune system to help with the problem.

Your doctor will recommend the best treatment to remove the plantar wart for good, depending on its depth and the level of pain it is causing you.

Surgery for Plantar Wart Removal

If no other treatment works and you are still troubled by painful plantar warts, surgery is the last resort to seek relief.

There are many different types of wart removal surgery. Surgery is often the least preferred treatment method as there is a chance for scarring, but in some cases, it becomes necessary.

They include:

• Electrosurgery – the infected wart tissue will be cut and removed using an electric needle;
• Curettage – The plantar wart is scooped or dugout with a small spoon-shaped instrument;
• Laser surgery – laser is used to burn the tiny blood vessels inside the plantar wart. With time the infected tissue dies, and the wart falls off. It is the least scarring treatment method as compared to others.

Your specialist will recommend the best plantar wart removal surgery, depending on the size or type of your growth.

How to Prevent Warts From Coming Back?

In most cases, there is a chance that plantar warts will come back. You may not be able to prevent them from coming up, but you can reduce the risk of recurrence by following some hygiene tips such as:

• Do not touch a wart, as this is the way they spread;
• Avoid picking or scratching them;
• Wash your hands with soap after touching a wart;
• Avoid direct contact with someone else’s warts;
• Stay clean and dry as moisture leads to bacterial growth;
• Follow good feet hygiene by washing your feet regularly and drying them afterward;
• Change your socks and shoes if your feet feel wet or sweaty;
• Protect foot soles from cuts and breaks as the virus can invade from the bottom of the feet;
• Wear covered shoes to protect your feet from abrasions or to keep existing cuts from getting infected;
• Avoid swimming pools, locker room showers, and other public places where people walk bare feet;
• Avoid using files and pumice stones you use on affected areas of skin for non-affected areas.

Practicing proper foot hygiene can help prevent and spot plantar warts early before they spread and save you from the pain and discomfort they cause.

Plantar warts are generally not harmful, but they can turn quite painful and make walking and standing a challenge for you with their depth and big size. You can avoid getting these warts and have them removed with the help of an expert internal medicine doctor who will figure out what is causing them and treat the root cause. Visit the Century Medical and Dental Center to learn more about plantar warts and how to remove their annoying presence from your life successfully to seek relief from the abnormal growths.