Warts can occur on everyone's body. In many cases, they disappear on their own, but sometimes it becomes necessary to remove them. Removal of warts is of course best done in healthcare. Self-disposal of such neoplasms can not give a result, or vice versa, lead to their damage. You will learn about where to remove warts from the next article.
Who can have warts
Anyone can get warts, but the most likely to get infected with papillomavirus are in:
- children and teenagers;
- adults and children who are in the habit of biting nails or biting barbs;
- 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, painfully) or multiply very quickly.
signs and symptoms
Depending on the appearance and location on the body, several types of warts are distinguished. The following are the signs (what the person sees) and the symptoms (what the person feels) that are common with some types of warts.
Vulgar (common) warts
If a child has a wart on their face, check their hands - you will probably see warts there as well. The virus usually spreads to the skin of the face when it is touched or when a child bites into the nails.
Vulgar warts:
- more common on the fingers, around the 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 it is a habit to bite nails;
- most often they resemble a small knot (compression) with an uneven rough surface;
- may have black dots on the surface (in fact, these are small thrombosed vessels), which are sometimes mistakenly called the "root" of warts.
Plantar warts
They appear on the sole of the foot and are sometimes difficult to treat.
Plantar warts:
- appears more often on the soles of the feet;
- can grow, unite and form so-called clusters (mosaic warts);
- more often flat or growing inward (due to the pressure created when walking);
- are painful, especially with pressure
- often causes the feeling of a pebble in the shoes;
- may have black dots on the surface.
Flat warts
- can occur everywhere, but usually occurs more 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, several and placed in groups, usually appear in large numbers - from 20 to 100 at a time.
Filiform warts (acrocords)
- resembling long threads or thin finger-like outgrowths;
- are more common on the face: around the mouth, eyes and nose;
- tends to grow rapidly.
Should I 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 guilty of the appearance of different types of warts, from 1 to 4 causing plantar warts, 49, 28, 3 and10 - flat, HPV 27 - plain.
Oncogenic HPV types require special attention, such as 52, 39, 33, 31, 30, 70, 40, 51, 55, 61-64, they can cause the occurrence of a cancer and are considered the most dangerous. When localized on the penis, in the vagina, on the cervix - HPV types 16, 11, 13, 31, 33, 35 - genital warts and papillomas form.
The following papillomaviruses, which can be located on the external genitalia and mucous membranes, are recognized as particularly dangerous - these are types 70, 66, 56, 33, 31, 18, 16. Many people who develop warts ask the question, is it possible to removewarts, 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, an increased risk of damage to growth, it is necessary to treat or remove neoplasms, because the presence of foci of a viral infection causes spread to other areas of the skin, and there is also a risk of neoplasm degenerating into a 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:
- Neoplasm bleeding or tearing;
- If the wart becomes painful, itching, burning occurs
- Changes color, becomes heterogeneous in color, changes shape and size
- The number of warts grows, more daughter growths appear
- If the wart is located in a conspicuous place, it is often traumatized and causes mental discomfort.
It may not be safe to remove a wart at home alone. All doctors agree that it is dangerous to remove a wart at home for the following reasons:
- Self-disposal of the buildup most often leads to the formation of a scar, scar or burn of the nearest skin tissue;
- With various home remedies, 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 likelihood of turning a true wart into a malignant neoplasm is not great, yet there is such a risk, and after self-removal of any neoplasm without diagnosis and hysteroscopy of the removed material, there can be negative consequences.
How are warts diagnosed?
In the case of warts, the dermatologist usually only needs to look at them in order to make a diagnosis. In some rare cases, a biopsy may be needed 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 treatment.
In adults, warts are in most cases also completely harmless, but unlike children, they sometimes do not go away on their own.
A dermatologist consultation is necessary if:
- warts change their shape, color, size;
- warts hurt you;
- the number of warts increases.
There are many different methods for removing warts. The choice of this or that method depends on the age of the patient, the state of health as well as the type of wart.
Wart - body gain
Papillomas (warts) are often confused with moles. Warts, like moles, can be removed in the same way. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, traditional surgery still leaves a mark on the skin.
Surgical removal of the warts is usually not recommended because the 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 treatments for warts include topical salicylic acid, duct tape and chemical treatments.
Basic methods of removing warts
As practice shows, many patients try to get rid of them using folk remedies. However, it is always worth understanding that folk methods in themselves are not very effective, and in some cases they may even prove to be dangerous. The correct process is possible only if the specialist not only struggles with the skin manifestations of the virus, but also with its basis. There are several ways to get rid of these neoplasms:
- Radio waves. . . A relatively new but already proven method. Using a special device, a radio wave with a certain frequency is exposed to the skin formation. The advantage of the method is that it allows you to remove both the wart itself and its root.
- Electrocoagulation.This term conceals the cauterization of the neoplasm by means of a special electrode. Thanks to local anesthesia, where all procedures are performed, you can always be sure that you will not experience any negative sensations.
- A liquid nitrogen.Another known method. Nitrogen freezes the wart and its root, which is why a really fast, high-quality removal is performed.
To remove warts, dermatologists can use:
- Cryotherapy(liquid nitrogen) is the most common method of removing vulgar warts in adults and older children, and it is not overly painful. But usually the procedure needs to be repeated. And the use of this method for people with dark skin can lead to the formation of dark spots on the skin.
- Electrosurgery and curettage. . . Electrosurgery (electric moxibustion) is an effective way to remove vulgar, filiform and plantar warts. Curettage is a method that involves scraping the wart with a sharp knife or a special instrument (curette). After scraping, electrocoagulation is performed and a bandage is placed on the wound.
Often these two procedures are used together. A dermatologist can remove warts by curettage before or after cauterization.
The doctor may also surgically remove the wart.
In cases where the above methods have not given positive results, the dermatologist can use one of the following methods:
- Laser treatment performed under local anesthesia;
- Cauterizing chemicals are usually prescribed to treat flat warts. Such peeling is performed daily at home, for this they use salicylic acid and glycolic acid preparations;
- Immunotherapy for treating warts is a way to activate the body's own defenses. Prescribed in cases where other forms of therapy have not yielded 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 inside the warts. Injections can boost immunity and cause the body to fight the virus.
Unfortunately, there is no way that allows you to get rid of warts once and for all with a 100% guarantee. They may 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 next to the wart before the wart is removed. Therefore, 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 removing warts with folk remedies is quite successful, but that does not mean at all that you should forget about traditional medicine and constantly self-medicate.
Any recipe for wart removal, every video on wart removal, reviews by people and cosmetologists - this is just an introductory material that shows that removal of warts in children and adults is possible without consequences.
But you should never experiment and draw hasty conclusions - every neoplasm on the human body must be shown to a doctor, examined by him using laboratory tests and only then cured or removed. But despite this, we decided to introduce you to some methods used to remove warts at home. We hope that this material that we recommended will only be informative for you.
Since the cost of removing warts in some clinics and beauty salons scares people a little, they try to treat neoplasms on their own, it happens that way.
Bulb treatment
A raw, medium-sized onion is soaked in vinegar for about two hours, cut and tied to the wart overnight. The procedure is performed until the wart disappears.
Treatment of wood ash
Wood ash, preferably fresh, should be diluted with clean water until a homogeneous slurry is formed, which should be applied daily to the warts until they disappear.
Removal of warts with celandine
The wart is lubricated with fresh celandine juice in the morning and evening. Due to the alkaloids in it, warts can be treated quickly. They dry up and go away. The procedure should be repeated until the wart disappears completely. Be careful when using celandine juice, it should not get on healthy skin as it is quite corrosive.
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 of a branch of any tree and hold it over an open fire. When it begins to smolder, cauterize the neoplasm with heat. This should be done several times, after 5-7 days the wart will disappear.
As you can see, in addition to buying warts to remove warts at the pharmacy, you can still grow them in your own cottage or find them in your home. It's up to you to experiment or not, think, but we have made our choice and have already recommended it to you several times.
After removal of papilloma
Remember that simply removing the warts does not remove the virus from the body. After a long or not very long time, papillomas may reappear. This is due to the presence of viral particles. To get rid of the virus for a long time, prevention should be performed. How do you do it?
Vitamin therapy. Complete a course lasting two to three months, focusing on the high concentration of zinc in the vitamin and mineral complexes taken. Zinc inhibits the proliferation of viral particles. Thus, the human papillomavirus dies once and for all.
- Good personal hygiene. Good skin care.
- Avoid stress, overexertion, normalize daily routine. Sleep should take at least eight hours a day.
- Eat well.
- Try not to catch a cold, avoid colds after removing warts for the first three months and better - six months.
- Check for intestinal dysbiosis. If available, take a course of probiotic treatment.
- See an infectious disease specialist or immunologist. Your doctor will prescribe you antiviral drugs that stimulate your immune system.
When thinking about removing a wart, first visit a competent specialist.
Papillomas with suspected malignancy are best removed by appointment with an oncologist.
Such formations are best subjected to a control histological examination.
Prevention
To prevent the appearance of warts, dermatologists recommend the following:
- do not damage the warts;
- wear sandals or other special shoes when visiting the pool, as well as in public showers and changing rooms;
- do not touch the warts of others;
- Dry dry feet with warts, moisture tends to spread the warts.