Get all your skin lesions seen by your doctor and DO NOT use this site for medical advice!
Those pesky, ugly little bumps that you find on your hands and feet, what the hell are they and how do you get rid of them!?
Plantar warts are found on the hands and feet most commonly in children. Just google ‘plantar wart’ and go to images and you will know what I am talking about. I’ll wait…
Yep, that’s what they look like. Not a pretty sight huh? And they are also hard to treat.
Warts are caused by a virus called HPV or human papilloma virus, there are more than 100 different types of HPV. This virus is also responsible for genital warts and cervical cancer! But fear not, your warts may be hard to treat, but they not dangerous and are not cancerous.
You get warts from direct skin contact or from touching something else that has touched the wart and is harboring the virus- like walking barefoot in moist warm locker room shower water (bet you are opening another tab to buy ‘shower sandals’).
The good news is warts aren’t dangerous, the bad news is they can sometimes be hard to treat. The treatments we usually try are wart paints which you can buy from a local pharmacy and/or liquid nitrogen (freezing) every 1-2 weeks. The silver lining is that warts will go away on their own anyway (in a year or two). In the meantime, keep them covered to prevent the virus spreading so you don’t get new warts!
Your family doctor would love to see your wart if you have one. So even if you ‘googled’ and your pretty sure it’s a wart, make sure you get any new skin lesions or changes in any current lesions seen by your family doctor.
– The Doctor
P.S If you have a plantar wart, please add a photo in the comments, lets see them!