What are plantar warts?
Plantar warts are small growths on your feet, usually in the areas where you bear weight. They often occur on the underside of your foot and are caused by a virus known as HPV.
Plantar warts usually occur in children and the elderly. There are two variations of plantar warts, solitary and mosaic. Solitary warts start as one wart that often grows bigger. It can even branch out, causing other warts to form.
Mosaic warts are harder to treat because they’re a lot of tiny warts that grow in clusters. Either type of wart causes pain and sometimes difficulty walking.
How do you know it’s a wart?
A small lesion on your foot isn’t always a plantar wart. There are several key features of plantar warts, which include:
- Tiny rough growths on your heel or the ball of your foot
- Pain when you stand on the foot or walk
- Black dots within the lesion
- A hard callus over the area in question
If you’re unsure if the spot on your foot is a wart or something else, you should seek treatment from Dr. Guan to rule out other conditions.
How are plantar warts treated?
Plantar warts can clear up on their own after a while. But if the wart is causing pain, it’s good to get treatment from Dr. Guan and the team.
There are many medical treatments to remove the wart from your foot. These treatments include:
- Salicylic acid
- Cryotherapy, or freezing off the wart
- Trichloroacetic acid
- Immunotherapy
If these measures aren’t enough, Dr. Guan uses laser treatments to eliminate the wart by damaging the blood supply. The wart then dies and eventually falls off.
Can you prevent plantar warts?
There are ways you can decrease your risk of getting plantar warts, which include:
- Don’t walk barefoot in locker rooms or around pools
- Keep your feet clean
- Avoid contact with warts, and wash your hands thoroughly
- Avoid scratching or picking at a wart
Keeping your feet dry can also reduce your risk of developing warts.
To get treatment for plantar warts, call the office today to make an appointment with Dr. Guan or book a consultation using the online booking tool.
