How to Get Rid of Warts?

How to Get Rid of Warts?

Do you have a wart that you want to get rid of? If so, you’re in luck! This blog post will discuss the best ways to get rid of warts at home. Many different home remedies can help you achieve this goal. We will go over each one in detail so that you can choose the one that is right for you. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

What are Warts?

Warts are ugly and bothersome and never seem to go away quickly enough. If you help them, they might leave faster. Around 10% of the world’s population is affected by warts. 10% to 20% of school-aged children suffer from the disease. In immunosuppressed patients and meat handlers, they are more common. Regardless of age, warts can occur. 

Wart on hand

Most warts are harmless and go away on their own over time. However, they look bad; some, like those on the bottom of the feet, can make it painful to walk or exercise. Warts can be hard to get rid of, but the best treatments are the ones that cause the most minor damage.

The human papillomavirus infects skin cells and makes them grow faster than usual, which leads to warts (HPV). About 10 of the 150 strains of HPV cause warts on the skin, such as everyday, plantar, and flat warts. Some other strains cause warts on the lips and in the genital area. Some types of HPV spread through sexual contact are linked to cervical and other genital cancers, but the strains that cause skin warts are rarely linked to cancer.

We all have repeated contact with HPV, like when we shake hands or touch a doorknob, but only some of us get warts, which is hard to understand. Children and people with problems with their immune systems are especially at risk. Some people, like those who work with meat, fish, and poultry, are too, for reasons that aren’t always clear. But it’s more likely that some people just get warts more often than others.

Skin warts don’t spread very easily. They can spread from one person to another through close contact, mostly through cuts or other breaks in the skin. You could also get warts from locker room floors or shower walls, but there’s no way to know how often this happens. Warts on one part of the body can spread to other parts, so it’s important to wash your hands and anything that touches your warts, like nail files or pumice stones.

A wart virus infection is not the same as a bacterial infection like strep throat, which can be caught, treated, and gotten rid of because it moves in a clear, predictable way. Much less can be said about how warts will act. Dr. Suzanne Olbricht, a dermatologist, says “The virus that causes warts lives in the top layer of skin, and no one knows where or when you got it. It’s possible that the virus had been there for years. Then, for some reason we don’t understand, it makes a wart. Even after the wart is gone, the virus can still be found in the epidermis.”

Common Type of Warts

TypeAppearanceCharacteristics
CommonA light to gray-brown color with a raised, rough surface.Hands are the most common location, but it can appear anywhere. The ones under or around the fingernails and toenails can be difficult to treat.
PlantarA rough, spongy surface that stays flat when walked on; gray or brown with dark specks.A sole of the foot is the only place where they can be found. Mosaic warts are plantar warts that cluster together.
FlatThe surface is flat or slightly raised; it is smooth and pink. Compared to other warts, this one is smaller.Face, hands, and shins are the most common places to find it. Warts like these are less common, but when they do appear, they’re often in large numbers.

Treating warts

“Watchful waiting” is a viable option for new warts, as half of the warts disappear within a year and two-thirds within two years. It is possible to seek therapy if you don’t want to wait it out.

  1. Salicylic acid: Aspirin’s primary constituent is acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). According to one study, salicylic acid is the only topical therapy that clearly outperforms a placebo. (Data from several earlier research were merged and reanalyzed in the August 2011 issue of the British Journal of Dermatology.) For a relatively low price and with few side effects, salicylic acid is an excellent choice for treating various skin conditions. The concentrations are found between 17% and 40% (stronger concentrations should be used only for warts on thicker skin). To get rid of a wart, soak it in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes, then use an emery board or pumice stone to remove the dead warty skin. For 12 weeks, do this once or twice a day. An extended patch treatment may be most effective for warts with thick skin, such as those on the bottom of the foot. It is possible to avoid wart recurrence by continuing treatment for a few days after the wart has disappeared.
  2. Freezing: In this ” cryotherapy treatment,” liquid nitrogen is swabbed or sprayed on the wart and a small area around it. Extreme cold, which can get as low as -321 F, burns the skin and makes it hurt, turn red, and usually form a blister. It takes three or four treatments, one every two to three weeks, to get rid of the wart. More treatments than that probably won’t help. Apply salicylic acid to the skin after it has healed to make more skin peel off. Some trials have shown that both salicylic acid and cryotherapy are equally effective, with 50–70% cure rates. However, some evidence is that cryotherapy is more effective than salicylic acid for hand warts.
  3. Duct tape: Even though the results have been mixed, anecdotal evidence suggests that this low-risk, the low-tech approach may be worth trying. In a study that compared duct tape to cryotherapy, people with warts wore patches made of duct tape for six days. Then, they took off the patches, soaked and filed warts, and left them out in the open for the night. The next morning, they put the patches back on and left them for another six days. They did this for two months, or until the wart went away, whichever came first. In this study, duct tape worked better than cryotherapy by about 45%. Two other studies didn’t find any benefit, but they used clear duct tape instead of the usual silver kind, which is stickier and uses a different kind of glue. From what we know so far, it makes sense to use silver duct tape if you want to try duct tape. It’s not clear why duct tape works. It could cut off oxygen to the wart or remove dead skin and virus particles along with the tape. Some people put salicylic acid on the wart before putting duct tape over it.
  4. Other agents: Prescription drugs can treat warts that don’t respond to other treatments. The standard treatment for genital warts, imiquimod (brand name Aldara), can also be used to treat skin warts. People think that imiquimod works by causing an allergic reaction and irritation at the wart site. Intralesional immunotherapy involves injecting the wart with a skin-test antigen (such as one for mumps or Candida) in people who have shown an immune response to the antigen. Fluorouracil (5-FU), used as a cream, and bleomycin, injected into the wart, are two other ways to treat warts that don’t go away. These treatments have side effects, and there isn’t much proof that they work.
  5. Zapping and cutting: In medical terms, this treatment is called electrodesiccation (or cautery) and curettage. Using a local anesthetic, the doctor dries the wart with an electric needle and then scrapes it off with a curette, which looks like a scoop. Usually, this leaves scars (so does removing the wart with a scalpel, another option).

Some of the Home Remedies to try to get rid of warts?

​​One popular home remedy for warts is to apply duct tape to the affected area. This method works by suffocating the wart and eventually causing it to fall off eventually. To try this method, simply place a piece of duct tape over the wart and leave it on for several days. You should then be able to peel the wart off along with the duct tape.

Another popular home remedy for warts is to apply a mixture of baking soda and water to the affected area. This mixture will create an acidic environment that warts do not like. Simply apply the mixture to the wart and leave it on for several minutes before rinsing it off. Repeat this process several times per day until the wart disappears.

Get rid of warts at home using Smootag - Wart Remover

It is also possible to remove warts with Smootag, an innovative skincare product that is free of toxins and easy to use at home. Read here in Smootag reviews more about the product.  

If you are looking for a more natural remedy, you may want to try using banana peel. This method is said to work by the enzymes in the banana peel breaking down the wart. To try this method, simply rub a piece of a banana peel on the wart for several minutes each day.

There are many other home remedies for warts that you can try. Some other popular ones include using garlic, apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice. Simply apply these substances to the wart and leave them on for several minutes before rinsing them off. Repeat this process several times per day until the wart disappears.

Be patient and consistent with your treatments, whichever home remedy you choose. It can sometimes take weeks or even months for a wart to disappear completely. But eventually, with the proper treatment, it will! So don’t give up and keep trying until you see results. Good luck!

When to see your clinician

At first, some skin cancers look like warts. If your wart’s size, color, or shape doesn’t change much, you probably don’t need to see a doctor. But if you are over 50 and get new warts, you should see a dermatologist. If a wart bleeds or grows quickly, be wary of it.

Conclusion 

Do you have any experience getting rid of warts? If so, let us know in the comments below! We would love to hear from you.

If you found this blog post helpful, please be sure to share it with your friends. Would you please share this guide with others who might find it useful? We appreciate you taking the time and visiting ixwallet.org.