What causes Planters Warts on the toes? What do you do to get rid of them?

One Comment

1. slmw38 says:

   July 18, 2010 at 7:26 am

   Most plantar warts aren’t a serious health concern, but they may be bothersome or painful, and they can be resistant to treatment. You may need to see your doctor to remove plantar warts.You acquire warts through direct contact with the human papillomavirus (HPV). There are more than 100 types of HPV. Some types of HPV tend to cause warts on your hands, fingers or near your fingernails. Others tend to cause warts on your feet.

   The virus that causes plantar warts isn’t highly contagious, but it thrives in warm, moist environments, such as shower floors, locker rooms and public swimming areas. So you may contract the virus by walking barefoot in public places.

   Like other infectious diseases, HPV may also pass from person to person. If you have a plantar wart, you can even spread the virus to other places on your own foot by touching or scratching. The virus can also spread by contact with skin shed from a wart or blood from a wart.

   Each person’s immune system responds to warts differently, so not everyone who comes in contact with HPV develops warts. Even people in the same family react to the virus differently. That’s why parents and kids don’t necessarily spread warts by sharing the same shower.

   Salicylic acid. Wart medications and patches are available at drugstores. To treat plantar warts, you’ll need a 40 percent salicylic acid solution or patch (Curad Mediplast, Dr. Scholl’s Clear Away Plantar, others), which peels off the infected skin a little bit at a time. Apply the solution once or twice each day, being careful to avoid healthy skin, which can become irritated from the acid. In between applications, pare away the dead skin and wart tissue using a pumice stone or emery board. You may need to repeat this process for up to three or four weeks to completely eliminate warts.
   Duct tape. In a well-publicized 2002 study, duct tape wiped out more warts than freezing (cryotherapy) did. Study participants who used "duct tape therapy" covered their warts in duct tape for six days, then soaked their warts in water, and gently rubbed warts with an emery board or pumice stone. They repeated this process for up to two months or until their warts went away. Researchers hypothesize that this unconventional therapy may work by irritating warts and the surrounding skin, prompting the body’s immune system to attack. Today, duct tape is commonly used to treat warts, especially for children who may find freezing painful or scary. It’s often combined with salicylic acid.
   Freezing (cryotherapy). Freezing is one of the most common treatments for plantar warts and is usually effective, but may require multiple trips to your doctor every two to four weeks. Your doctor can apply liquid nitrogen with a spray canister or cotton-tipped applicator. The chemical causes a blister to form around your wart, and the dead tissue sloughs off within a week or so. Freezing isn’t commonly used in young children because it can be painful.
   Cantharidin. Doctors and healers have used cantharidin — a substance extracted from the blister beetle — to treat warts for centuries. Today, this therapy is sometimes paired with salicylic acid. Your doctor paints this beetle juice onto your wart and covers it with clear tape. The application is painless, but it causes the skin under the wart to blister, lifting the wart off the skin. Your doctor can then clip away the dead part of the wart in about a week. However, some doctors are hesitant to use cantharidin because it’s not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of warts.