Warts Specialist

What Causes Warts?

Warts are benign skin growths caused by an infection from a contagious virus known as human papillomavirus (HPV). Warts are common among children and teenagers and form painless lumps on the skin surface with a rough texture.

What are the symptoms of Warts?

There are several types of warts. Each differs slightly in appearance, even though they are caused by the same virus. Here are some examples:

• Common warts-these can affect any part of the body but mostly appear on the hands, knees, and feet.
• Flat warts – these appear in groups of hundreds, mainly in children on the face, legs or hands. They are small, pinhead-sized lesions.
• Plantar warts -these develop on the sole of the foot and tend to be painful especially when pressure is applied to the foot.
• Periungual or Subungual warts – these appear around the fingernails and tend to be difficult to treat.
• Genital warts – these have a white cauliflower-like appearance, affecting the male and female genitals; they are considered a type of sexually transmitted disease.

How do you treat Warts?

The goal of the treatment of warts is to destroy the wart without damaging the healthy tissue underneath.  In order to do this, warts are rarely excised (cut out) but are treated with different therapies that will preferentially damage warts without hurting the normal skin. Some ways to treat warts include these:

• Topical treatment with medication – this includes medications that are destructive to warts, such as salicylic acid or other caustic treatments. Gels or liquids are applied directly to the skin.
• Freezing – liquid nitrogen is used to freeze the wart tissue. This triggers an immune response that will allow your body to get rid of warts.
• Electrocautery – this involves numbing the area and burning the wart off the overlying skin.
• Minor surgery – sometimes the wart needs to be removed directly; however, this will leave a scar so it isn’t the preferred treatment.

Dr. Obayan has treated many types of common and uncommon warts and can recommend or provide a treatment that works best for the type of wart you have.

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