Warts are small, benign, thickened, viral growths that develop on the skin. They are called plantar warts when they form on the sole of the foot and, in this case, they are very annoying when walking because you have the sensation of having a stone in your shoe. They generally occur on the plantar areas subject to greater pressure, which leads them to become flat, but with deep "roots" within the skin. In most cases, no medical intervention is required; you can treat them at home and prevent them from reforming by following the few simple tips in this article.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Treating Plantar Warts at Home
Step 1. Accept that home remedies have limitations
Although these are effective treatments, it takes several weeks or even a couple of months to reap the benefits. If you want the warts to disappear quickly, it's best to ask your doctor for help.
Plantar warts often disappear spontaneously and leave no scars. However, this process develops over several months. Meanwhile, the growths will cause pain and make walking difficult
Step 2. Prepare the warts for treatment
Soften the surface by soaking your foot in hot water for several minutes. Next, wipe off the excess skin using a nail file or pumice stone. Remember never to use these tools on other parts of the body, so as not to spread warts.
If you remove the top layer of the wart, you allow the product to work deeper
Step 3. Try a salicylic acid treatment
There are many topical products (i.e. to be applied to the skin) that are sold without a prescription, whose active ingredient is precisely salicylic acid. These drugs can be in liquid, gel or patch form. Follow the instructions in the leaflet carefully to successfully get rid of plantar warts.
Salicylic acid treatments are not painful, but they take a few weeks to show their effectiveness
Step 4. Test the duct tape
You have to cut a piece of it as big as the wart and apply it on it for up to six days; in this way the area dries. On the seventh day, remove the adhesive tape and immerse the foot in hot water for five minutes, in order to soften the layer of dead skin cells; finally scrape the wart with a nail file or pumice stone. Apply a new piece of duct tape for another six days.
- Do not use that pumice stone or specific file for any other purpose.
- You will have to wait several weeks to see the first results.
Step 5. Learn about cryotherapy products
Thanks to freezing, the blood flow to the wart stops. There are kits for this type of treatment that you can use at home, such as Wartner or Dr. Scholl Freeze Verruca. Again, follow the instructions you find inside the package.
Home cryotherapy may create some discomfort and some find it painful. The doctor administers a local anesthetic to freeze the wart deeper
Step 6. Assess if dermatologist intervention is required
Although warts can be treated at home with good results, there are cases where it is imperative to seek medical help. Make an appointment at your dermatology clinic if you notice any of these complications:
- The wart does not go away after treatment or it disappears, but it reappears quickly;
- It rapidly increases in size or clumps of warts form. In this case it could be mosaic warts;
- The wart is bleeding or you experience more severe pain after treatment
- The area becomes red, swollen, or begins to ooze pus these are symptoms of infection;
- You are diabetic, suffer from peripheral artery occlusive disease or coronary artery disease. In these cases, your health conditions are precarious and you do not have to treat plantar warts at home, but rather go to a podiatrist who will also check the blood supply to your feet. All of these diseases increase the risk of infection or tissue necrosis due to poor blood circulation.
Part 2 of 3: Relying on Medical Care
Step 1. Discuss with your dermatologist about strong acid peeling
Salicylic acid is the active ingredient in over-the-counter peels that are sold to reduce the size of the wart. When home treatments are not effective, the dermatologist can use more aggressive acids, including dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acids.
These therapies need to be repeated over several sessions and your doctor may instruct you to use salicylic acid between sessions
Step 2. Consider cryotherapy
The treatment is very similar to that of home kits, but the doctor is able to use liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart tissue. After application, a blister will form which will heal and come off, taking the wart with it.
- This procedure is painful and is not done on children. Your doctor may or may not decide to numb the area with a local anesthetic, depending on the size of the surface to be treated.
- Several sessions are needed to achieve positive results.
Step 3. Discuss laser therapy with your doctor
There are two laser procedures for wart removal. In the first, the laser beam removes the growth from the rest of the skin, while in the second the blood vessels that carry nourishment are cauterized, killing it.
Laser surgery can be a painful process that requires a longer convalescence. It is performed on a day-hospital basis with local anesthesia
Step 4. Ask your dermatologist about immunotherapy
During this treatment, your doctor will give you intralesional injections of antigens into the wart. In other words, it will inject toxins into the wart to stimulate the immune system to fight against the virus.
This treatment is reserved for cases of warts that are particularly stubborn or that have proved resistant to other methods of treatment
Step 5. Consider surgical options if the growth does not respond to other therapies
The podiatrist may choose to surgically remove the wart using electric needles to kill the surrounding tissue and then proceed with the removal. The procedure could be painful and often leaves scars; however, it is very effective and gives good results even in the long term.
Never try to remove a wart at home. You could cause bleeding and infection, because you don't have the right tools and can't guarantee the sterility of the environment.
Part 3 of 3: Identifying and Preventing Plantar Warts
Step 1. Assess if you are at risk for this infection
Warts are the result of exposure to the human papilloma virus (HPV). There are more than 120 different HPV strains, but only 5 or 6 are responsible for plantar warts. You can become infected through contact with infected skin particles.
- Athletes who shower in communal locker rooms are at high risk, due to the large number of people using these environments, typically without foot protectors. For example, swimmers (in both outdoor and indoor pools) are more likely to become infected in communal locker rooms, as well as in tiled poolside areas. However, this category also includes sportsmen who go to the gym and frequent its changing rooms, showers or whirlpools, places where people often walk barefoot.
- Individuals with cracked or injured feet offer the virus a perfect gateway to the body. Even those who remain with wet or sweaty feet all day run a greater risk, because the skin is cut due to excessive exposure to humidity and allows the passage of the virus.
- People who have already developed these types of growths are likely to still have them. For example, those who have stung the wart can spread the virus to other parts of the body.
- Patients who are immunosuppressed due to diseases such as mononucleosis, Epstein-Bar virus, cancer, HIV and AIDS or who are taking chemotherapy to control psoriatic arthritis are more prone to developing plantar warts.
Step 2. Look at your feet if you suspect you have warts
You should find a small area of skin that is hard and flat, with a rough surface and well-defined contours. Although these growths initially look like a callus, be aware that they are the result of a viral infection. The infection manifests itself in two ways: with a single wart or in groups; in this second case we speak of plantar mosaic warts.
- A single wart begins to increase in size and can even multiply, generating other single "satellite" growths.
- Mosaic plantar warts are clusters of massed growths without the presence of healthy skin in between. They are not "satellites" to each other, but grow very close together and look like a single large wart. Treatment is more difficult than for single warts.
Step 3. Assess secondary symptoms
Do you experience pain in the area? Although warts can look like calluses on the soles of the feet, they cause pain when pressed, making it difficult to stand up.
Check for black spots inside the thickened area. These are small blood clots inside the wart
Step 4. See if they spread
Warts are contagious both between people and between different parts of the same body. Three small plantar warts can quickly become 10 satellite neoformations and in this case the treatment would be more complex.
As with all diseases, the earlier you spot the problem and start treatment, the easier it will be to get good results
Step 5. Prevent further infections
After you have cured yourself and eradicated your warts, you still run a higher risk of getting infected with HPV (the virus responsible for this disorder) again. To get started, wear flip-flops or other water-resistant footwear when in public areas, showers, changing rooms, saunas, swimming pools or hot tubs. Always keep your feet clean and dry; change your socks every day and use a suitable powder if your feet are excessively sweaty.
Smear coconut oil on your feet before bed to prevent the skin from cracking and flaking. Put on a clean pair of socks after applying a dime-sized amount of oil to each foot
Step 6. Don't infect other people
Do not scratch or tease the warts, otherwise you risk spreading the virus to other parts of the body and to other people.
- Don't touch other people's warts and don't wear socks or shoes that aren't yours.
- Wear flip-flops or other water-resistant footwear when you shower at home and have warts to avoid passing them on to the rest of the family.
- Avoid having clothes, towels and socks touch the floor in public changing rooms and areas around the pool.
Advice
- Change your socks every day and keep your feet dry and clean, both during treatment and to prevent the development of other plantar warts.
- When you are in public changing rooms, showers or in the areas around swimming pools, saunas and whirlpools, use flip-flops or similar footwear.
Warnings
- Never try to remove the wart yourself, it could cause bleeding and infection.
- You cannot get warts by touching frogs or toads.
- If you are diabetic, suffer from coronary heart disease or from occlusive disease of the peripheral arteries, you must rely on a podiatrist for the treatment of warts; it is a doctor who specializes in foot pathologies.
