Wart Treatments

A wart is a small growth with a rough texture that can appear anywhere on the body. It can look like a solid blister or a small cauliflower. Warts are caused by viruses in the human papillomavirus (HPV) family.

The appearance of a wart depends on its location on the body and the thickness of the skin.

Palmar warts appear on the hand. Plantar warts affect the feet (verrucas).

As many as 1 in 3 children and teenagers are estimated to have warts, but only 3 to 5 percent of adults. This is probably because the immune system becomes better able to prevent their development over time.

People with a weakened immune system are more likely to have wart

What causes plantar warts?

Warts are caused by infection in the outer layer of the skin (epidermis) with a virus called the ‘human papilloma virus’. There are many different strains of this virus, and plantar warts are usually due to just a few of these strains. Infection makes the skin over-grow and thicken, leading to a benign (non-cancerous) skin growth (the wart).

Plantar warts are caught by contact with infected skin scales – for example from the floors of public locker rooms, shower cubicles and the areas around swimming pools. The virus is not highly contagious, and it is unclear why some people develop plantar warts while others do not. The virus enters the skin through tiny breaks in the skin surface.

Most warts disappear in 1 to 5 years without medical treatment, but treatment is available for warts that are large, numerous, or in sensitive areas.

Treatments

We offer a range of treatments for warts including Swift microwave treatment, cryotherapy, diphenylcyclopropenone treatment (immunotherapy), topical treatments and surgery.

Our clinic is the most specialist centre in Dorset for wart treatments. Our success rate for patients under the age of 30 is 100%.

We offer a range of treatments and we will advise the most suitable treatment for you once we have reviewed the warts and their location.

Most skin clinics offer cryotherapy only. Although we do offer this, warts need repeated painful treatments and some warts do not respond well.

We offer immunotherapy for warts with either Swift microwave treatment or Diphenylcyclopropenone chemical treatment.