Plantar Warts [Innovative Foot Care] {Minnesota foot and ankle}

[Plantars warts] are caused by a viral infection on the bottom of foot. The virus invades the feet through small or invisible cuts and abrasions. Children, especially teenagers, are more susceptible than adults. Most warts are harmless, even though they may be painful.
If left untreated, a {plantar wart} can grow to an inch or more in circumference and can spread into clusters of several more warts. Sometimes multiple plantar warts group together.
This is called a mosaic wart. Like any other infectious lesion, plantar warts are spread by touching, scratching or even by contact with skin shed from another wart.
Patients often have difficulty diagnosing plantar warts by themselves. Warts are often mistaken for calluses and vice versa. Also, it is possible for patients to present with warts that are actually more serious lesions like malignant lesions such as carcinomas and melanomas. Thankfully, these conditions are very rare.
What do plantar warts look like? Generally, they tend to be hard and flat with a rough surface, well-defined boundaries, and skin lines are difficult to see. Plantar warts are often gray, white or brown, but the color may vary with a center that appears as one or more pinpoints of black. Warts are often raised and fleshier when they appear on the top of the foot or the toes.
Self treatment of plantar warts is generally not advisable. However, a trip to the foot care isle at Thrifty White or K-Mart suggests self-treatment of warts is a big business. Over-the-counter preparations may contain acids or chemicals that destroy skin cells and harm healthy tissue. Some of my patients have done more harm than good by freezing off warts that weren't really warts. There are also many ineffective home remedies which involve rubbing the wart with various objects: banana skins, duct tape, cow dung, wheat kernels, milkweed juice, chicken gizzards, dusty dry toads, lemon juice, castor oil, dirt, and the family Bible..Click to learn more!.
There are many effective prescription treatments that can be prescribed by your physician: creams, acids, freezing, lasers, injections soaking in formaldehyde, pills, and surgery. Personally I avoid freezing [warts] because it is painful and can cause skin discoloration. I also avoid laser therapy, which is really an overpriced gimmick in my opinion.
I have extensively researched treatment of warts and there are two therapies that clearly stand out as most effective. The first is surgical excision by a blunt dissection technique, which I have written about previously. The second is bleomycin injections. However, bleomycin treatment is expensive and seldom covered by insurance companies for {plantar wart} treatment...Click to learn more!