Warts can appear on everyone's body. In many cases, they go away on their own, but sometimes they need to be removed. Wart removal, of course, is best done in a healthcare setting. Self-elimination of such neoplasms may not give a result, or vice versa, lead to their injury. You will learn where you can remove warts from the following article.
Who can get warts?
Anyone can get warts, but the people most likely to get infected with the papillomavirus are the following:
- children and adolescents;
- adults and children who have a habit of biting their nails or biting their quills;
- people with weakened immune systems.
In children, warts usually go away without treatment. A dermatologist should be consulted if the warts bother the child (for example, they are painful) or they multiply very quickly.
Signs and symptoms
Depending on the appearance and location on the body, various types of warts are distinguished. The following are the signs (what the person sees) and symptoms (what the person feels) that are common with some types of warts.
Vulgar warts (common)
If a child has a wart on his face, be sure to check his hands; he most likely sees warts too. The virus usually spreads to the skin of the face when touched or when a child bites their nails.
Vulgar warts:
- most common on fingers, around nails, and on the back of the palms;
- more common in places where the skin is often damaged, for example, in places where there are burrs, or when the habit of biting nails;
- most of the time they look like a small nodule (compaction) with an irregular and rough surface;
- it may have black dots on the surface (in fact, these are small thrombosed vessels), which are sometimes mistakenly called the "root" of the wart.
Plantar warts
They appear on the sole of the foot and are sometimes difficult to treat.
Plantar warts:
- appear more frequently on the soles of the feet;
- it can grow, join and form so-called clumps (mosaic warts);
- more often flat or growing inward (due to pressure created by walking);
- they are painful, especially with pressure;
- they often cause the sensation of a pebble in the shoes;
- may have black spots on the surface.
Flat warts
- it can appear anywhere, but, as a rule, it occurs most often in children on the face, in men, on the chin, in women, on the legs;
- Smaller and smoother than other types of warts.
- as a rule, multiple and located in groups, they usually appear in large numbers, from 20 to 100 at a time.
Filiform warts (skin tags)
- they look like long threads or thin finger-like outgrowths;
- they are most common on the face: around the mouth, eyes and nose;
- they tend to grow rapidly.
Do I need to get rid of warts and why?
For each type of papillomavirus in medicine, a numbering system is used. It is known that HPV types numbered 57, 26-29, 14-17, 12, 10, 7 1-5 - are to blame for the appearance of various types of warts, from 1 to 4 - cause plantar warts, 49, 28 , 3 and 10 - flat, HPV 27 - ordinary.
Oncogenic HPV types require special attention, such as 52, 39, 33, 31, 30, 70, 40, 51, 55, 61-64, they can cause the appearance of a precancerous condition and are considered the most dangerous. When located on the penis, in the vagina, on the cervix (HPV types 16, 11, 13, 31, 33, 35) they form genital warts and papillomas.
The following papillomaviruses, which can be localized to the external genital organs and mucous membranes, are recognized as especially dangerous: These are types 70, 66, 56, 33, 31, 18, 16. Many people who develop warts wonder if it is possible to remove warts, is it dangerous or not?
In any case, a person should consult a dermatologist to determine the nature of the neoplasm, its type. In addition to eliminating aesthetic discomfort, a greater risk of growth injury, it is necessary to treat or remove neoplasms because the presence of foci of a viral infection causes its spread to other areas of the skin, and there is also a risk of the neoplasm degenerating into malignant. Be sure to consult a dermatologist to find out the type of wart, papilloma, or condyloma and determine the best way to get rid of it.
Do not postpone your visit if:
- The neoplasm is bleeding or a tear has occurred;
- If the wart becomes painful, itching and burning occurs.
- Changes color, becomes heterogeneous in color, changes shape and size
- The number of warts is growing, multiple daughter growths appear.
- If the wart is located in a visible place, it is often traumatized and causes psychological distress.
Removing a wart at home on your own may not be safe. All doctors are unanimous in the opinion that removing a wart at home is dangerous and not advisable for the following reasons:
- Self-elimination of accumulation most often leads to the formation of a scar, scar, or burn of the closest skin tissue;
- With various home methods, it is possible to introduce an infection into the wound and develop an inflammatory process or spread the virus to other areas of the skin;
Of course, the probability of transformation of a true wart into a malignant neoplasm is not great, but that risk still exists, and after self-expression of any neoplasm, without diagnosis and hysteroscopy of the extracted material, there may be adverse consequences.
How are warts diagnosed?
In the case of warts, to establish a diagnosis, the dermatologist usually only needs to look at them. In some rare cases, a biopsy may be necessary to confirm the diagnosis. To do this, the doctor will remove the wart and send the sample to the laboratory, where it will be examined under a microscope. Don't worry, this is a quick and safe procedure.
How to treat warts
In children, warts usually go away without any treatment.
In adults, warts in most cases are also completely harmless, but unlike children, sometimes they do not go away on their own.
Consultation with a dermatologist is necessary if:
- warts change in shape, color, size;
- warts hurt you;
- increases the number of warts.
There are many different methods to remove warts. The choice of this or that method depends on the age of the patient, the state of health and the type of wart.
Wart - body augmentation
Papillomas (warts) are often mistaken for moles. Warts, like moles, can be removed in the same way. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, traditional surgery leaves a mark on the skin anyway.
Surgical removal of warts is generally not recommended because warts often grow back.
With cryodestruction and laser removal, it is not always possible to precisely control the depth of the effect on the tissue. Electrocoagulation allows you to control the depth of exposure, but the risk of scarring remains. Therefore, a combination of several methods is sometimes used. Other wart treatments include topical salicylic acid, duct tape, and chemical treatments.
Basic methods to remove warts.
As practice shows, many patients try to get rid of them using folk methods. However, it is always worth understanding that folk methods by themselves are not very effective and, in some cases, can even be dangerous. The correct process is possible only if the specialist fights not only with the skin manifestations of the virus, but also with its very base. There are several methods to get rid of these neoplasms:
- Radio waves. . . A relatively new method, but already well tested. With the help of a special apparatus, a radio wave of a certain frequency is exposed to the formation of the skin. The advantage of the method is that it allows you to remove both the wart and its root.
- Electrocoagulation.This term hides the cauterization of the neoplasm using a special electrode. Thanks to local anesthesia, under which all procedures are carried out, you can always be sure that you will not experience negative sensations.
- A liquid nitrogen.Another known method. Nitrogen freezes the wart and its root, so a really fast and high-quality removal takes place.
To remove warts, dermatologists can use:
- Cryotherapy(liquid nitrogen) is the most common method of removing warts in adults and older children, and it is not too painful. But usually the procedure needs to be repeated. And using this method on dark-skinned people can lead to the formation of dark spots on the skin.
- Electrosurgery and curettage. . . Electrosurgery (electric moxibustion) is an effective way to remove common, filiform, and plantar warts. Curettage is a method of scraping the wart with a sharp knife or a special instrument (curette). After scraping, electrocoagulation is performed and a bandage is placed over the wound.
Often these two procedures are used together. A dermatologist can remove warts by curettage before or after cauterization.
The doctor can also surgically remove the wart.
In cases where the above methods have not yielded positive results, the dermatologist may use one of the following methods:
- Laser treatment performed under local anesthesia;
- Cauterizing chemicals are commonly prescribed to treat flat warts. Said peeling is done daily at home, for this they use salicylic acid and glycolic acid preparations;
- Immunotherapy in the treatment of warts is a way to activate the body's own defenses. It is prescribed in cases where other types of therapy have not given positive results.
One of the types of immunotherapy is the application of a special substance to the wart. An allergic reaction occurs around the treated warts, which can help the body deal with them. Another type of immunotherapy is the injection of interferon into the warts. Injections can boost immunity and make the body fight the virus.
Unfortunately, there is no way that you can get rid of warts once and for all with a 100% guarantee. They can reappear in the old place and reappear in a new place. Sometimes it seems that new warts appear faster than old ones disappear. This happens if the virus infects cells adjacent to the wart before it is shed. That is why new warts usually appear near the place where the old one was.
Self-treatment and removal
There are a large number of ways in which the removal of warts with folk remedies is quite successful, but this does not at all mean that you should forget about traditional medicine and constantly self-medicate.
Any recipe for wart removal, every video on how to remove warts, reviews of people and cosmetologists - this is just introductory material that shows that wart removal in children and adults is possible without consequences.
But you should never experiment and draw hasty conclusions: all neoplasms in the human body should be shown to a doctor, studied by him using laboratory tests, and only then cured or eliminated. But despite this, we decided to introduce you to some methods that are used to remove warts at home. We hope that this material, as we advise you, remains only informative for you.
Since the cost of removing warts in some clinics and beauty salons scares people a bit, trying to treat neoplasms on their own, so it happens.
Bulb treatment
A medium-sized raw onion is soaked in vinegar for about two hours, sliced, and tied to the wart overnight. The procedure is carried out until the wart disappears.
Wood ash treatment
Wood ash, preferably fresh, should be diluted with clean water until a homogeneous slurry is formed, which should be applied to the warts daily until they disappear.
Celandine wart removal.
The wart is smeared with fresh celandine juice in the morning and in the evening. Due to the alkaloids it contains, warts can be treated quickly. They dry up and go. The procedure should be repeated until the wart completely disappears. Be careful using celandine juice, it should not affect healthy skin as it is quite caustic.
Removal of warts and papillomas by cauterization.
The method is painful, but according to many people, it is quite effective. It is necessary to take a dry stick from a branch of any tree and hold it over an open fire. When it begins to burn, you need to cauterize the neoplasm with heat. This needs to be done several times, after 5-7 days the wart will disappear.
As you can see, in addition to the fact that you can buy wart removal drugs at the pharmacy, you can still grow them in your own summer house or find them at home. It is up to you to experiment or not, to think, but we have made our choice and we have already recommended it to you several times.
After removal of the papilloma
Remember that simply removing warts does not remove the virus from the body. After a long or not very long time, the papillomas can reappear. This is due to the presence of viral particles. To get rid of the virus for a long time, prevention must be carried out. How to do it?
Vitamin therapy. Take a course of two to three months in duration, focusing on the high concentration of zinc in the vitamin and mineral complexes that are taken. Zinc inhibits the multiplication of viral particles. Thus, the human papillomavirus dies once and for all.
- Good personal hygiene. Good skin care.
- Avoid stress, overwork, normalize the daily routine. Sleep should last at least eight hours a day.
- Eat well.
- Try not to get too cold, avoid colds after removing warts for the first three months, and better, six months.
- Check for intestinal dysbiosis. If available, take a probiotic treatment.
- Consult an immunologist or infectious disease specialist. Your doctor will prescribe antiviral medications that boost your immune system.
When thinking about removing a wart, first visit a competent specialist.
Papillomas with suspected malignancy are best removed at an appointment with an oncologist.
It is better to subject such formations to a control histological examination.
Prevention
To prevent warts, dermatologists recommend the following:
- do not hurt warts;
- wear sandals or other special shoes when visiting the pool, as well as in public showers and changing rooms;
- do not touch other people's warts;
- Clean dry feet with warts, moisture tends to spread warts.