If you’ve discovered a wart on your foot, you might be tempted to treat it at home, but doing so can cause more harm than good.
Warts, especially those that form on the bottom of the foot (called plantar warts), are caused by a viral infection and often go deeper than they appear. Without proper treatment, they can worsen, recur, or even lead to complications.
Below, the Momentum Foot & Ankle Clinic team explains why you shouldn’t try to remove a wart on your own and what we can do to help rid your feet of those pesky warts.
We know it’s tempting to try to treat a wart privately at home, but before you attempt at-home treatments, consider these three problems with at-home wart removal:
Over-the-counter treatments and home remedies can seem convenient, but they aren’t always safe or effective, especially when dealing with plantar warts. These warts grow inward due to pressure from walking, and they may have a thick layer of callused skin over the top.
Trying to cut, scrape, or burn a wart on your own can damage healthy tissue, increase your risk of infection, and leave behind virus particles that cause the wart to grow back.
Trying to scrape off your own wart is especially dangerous if you have diabetes because even the smallest cut can spiral into a slow-healing wound.
Treating a wart at home can be risky, but what if you aren’t even dealing with a wart? Not all bumps on the foot are warts, and you can’t know for sure what your bump is without a proper diagnosis.
Corns, calluses, and other skin conditions can look similar but require different treatments. Misdiagnosing a wart at home could mean using the wrong product or method and potentially making the problem worse.
Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), specifically strains 1, 2, 4, 60, and 63. The problem is that most over-the-counter treatments often fail to fully eliminate the virus.
If you notice a painful growth on the bottom of your foot, or if the wart is growing, spreading, or interfering with walking, it’s time to see a podiatrist.
Aamir Mahmood, DPM, and Joseph G. Wilson, DPM, FACFAS, can accurately diagnose the problem and recommend a treatment plan based on your diagnosis. If you do have a plantar wart, we offer effective in-office treatments designed to target the wart and the virus behind it.
Treatment options include acid-based topical medications that gradually peel away the wart, as well as cryotherapy, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart so it falls off within a week.
In some cases, we may recommend laser wart removal.
You don’t have to sort through these options on your own. We explain each option and help you choose the approach that offers the best chance of relief and lasting results.
Contact our expert team in Michigan City, Chesterton, Indiana, and Lombard, Illinois, to schedule a consultation.
