What is it?
Warts are quite common and easy to recognize as a raised, and potentially rough, growth on the skin’s surface. As warts can be uncomfortable or unsightly, many choose to pursue treatment options to remove them.
Causes
A wart is caused by a virus. This virus is everywhere. It is on all of our skin, all of the time. It cannot grow on the outside of the skin, rather it has to have a break in the skin in order to start to develop. A foot is warm and damp and receives a lot of micro-trauma resulting in excellent avenues for the wart virus to gain entrance and begin to grow. Our immune system fights this virus similar to our body’s ability to keep us from catching the flu or a cold. This is why children are more susceptible to warts (their immune system has not been challenged as much). The wart virus is completely benign.
Symptoms
Many warts are not painful and remain the same size. If this is the case, a very reasonable treatment is to simply leave the wart alone. Often, they will resolve on their own over a period of 1 – 2 years. However, if the wart is painful &/or multiplying, it needs to be treated.
Treatment Options
There are as many different treatments for warts as there are wives’ tales about warts. The key to treatment is patience, persistence and follow-up. Dr. Ken Dennis treats conditions like plantar’s warts with inpatient and outpatient procedures including prescription medication, formaldehyde topical treatment, cryotherapy to freeze the wart off, surgical wart removal, vitamin A therapy, tagamet, and even duct tape!