It’s safe to say that no one loves a wart. These unsightly but benign bumps typically appear on your hands, feet, and knees. The bumps are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), which has more than 100 types. Plantar warts are a type that develops on the bottom of your foot and can be quite painful.
A plantar wart may appear to have many tiny dark dots on it. These are are tiny blood vessels that have grown right into the wart.
The dedicated podiatry team at South Florida Foot & Ankle Centers delivers excellent advanced wart treatment, and one of the most efficient and popular methods of wart removal uses laser treatment. You can take advantage of this at any one of our four conveniently located offices.
Plantar warts, like other kinds, are caused by the HPV virus, which enters your body through a small scratch or cut. They specifically strike the sole of your foot, on the outer layer of your skin.
Plantar warts can also be spread in public areas like pools and yoga studios. If you do happen to develop any type of wart, we’re here to help.
The chief problem that patients with plantar warts complain about is pain and discomfort, since they settle in the bottom of your feet. With repeated walking and standing, a plantar wart is pushed deeper into your skin, and a callous develops over it.
Pain isn’t the only problem a plantar wart causes, however:
Fortunately, there are treatments available for plantar warts that you can use at home or take advantage of at your podiatrist’s office.
Some plantar wart treatments are designed for home use, like over-the-counter removal medications that can be purchased in liquid or patch forms. These contain salicylic acid and may take a period of months to work. Some people also report success with prolonged use of duct tape, which softens plantar warts.
Your podiatrist can also freeze your warts in the office with liquid nitrogen, an approach that is appropriate for some patients in certain cases. This treatment is often successful, but you can experience pain for several days afterward.
A treatment we also favor for many patients is laser wart removal, a method that employs an intense light to burn the wart tissue. The laser cuts off your wart’s blood supply, and after a few days, it falls off. The skin in and around your wart area then heals.
We use a local anesthetic to block pain when you get the procedure, and though laser removal is quite effective, your podiatrist may offer it only after other more conservative treatments have failed.
You might experience post-removal pain, but we help you manage it, and best of all, we know that laser wart removal is highly successful in eradicating your plantar wart. In most cases, the treatment leaves no scar.
Call any one of the South Florida Foot & Ankle Centers offices and schedule an appointment to see if laser wart removal is the right choice for you, or book your appointment online.
