Plantar Warts Doctor Louisville, KY | Podiatrist Louisville, KY

Plantar Wart Treatment in Louisville, KY | Podiatrist Louisville, KY | Kentucky Wart Doctor

PATIENT TESTIMONIAL

What is a Plantar Wart?

A wart is a small growth on the skin that develops when the skin is infected by a virus. Plantar warts can develop around your toes, heels, and the soles of your feet. They can appear as rough bumps or calluses and can often form clusters. Plantar warts most commonly occur in children, adolescents, and the elderly.

There are two types of plantar warts:

• A solitary wart is a single wart. It often increases in size and may eventually multiply, forming additional “satellite” warts.
• Mosaic warts are a cluster of several small warts growing closely together in one area. Mosaic warts are more difficult to treat than solitary warts.

Plantar Warts: Causes & Prevention

Plantar warts are caused by exposure to a virus. This virus thrives in public areas like locker rooms, pools, and gym facilities, so one of the best ways you can prevent plantar warts is to never go barefoot in public areas. It’s also helpful to:

• Wash and dry your feet every day
• Change your socks and shoes every day
• Don’t touch a wart because it can spread the virus

Symptoms of Plantar Warts

The symptoms of a plantar wart may include:

• Thickened skin. Often a plantar wart resembles a callus because of its tough, thick tissue.
• Pain. Walking and standing may be painful. Squeezing the sides of the wart may also cause pain.
• Tiny black dots. These often appear on the surface of the wart. The dots are actually dried blood contained in the capillaries (tiny blood vessels).

Plantar warts grow deep into the skin. Usually this growth occurs slowly, with the wart starting small and becoming larger over time.

Diagnosis and Treatment

To diagnose a plantar wart, your podiatrist will examine the patient’s foot and look for signs and symptoms of a wart. Although plantar warts may eventually clear up on their own, most patients desire faster relief. The goal of treatment is to completely remove the wart.. The podiatrists at New Horizons Foot and Ankle Associates use advanced technology to remove warts permanently, so they never grow back.

For small, non-painful warts, they may recommend:

• Drying up the wart using a topical salicylic acid solution
• Freezing the wart using liquid nitrogen

For larger, painful warts, the podiatrists at New Horizons Foot and Ankle Associates may recommend:

• Pulse dye laser wart removal treatment works by killing the blood vessels supplying the wart
• Swift Microwave wart removal treatment works by stimulating the body’s own immune response to destroy the underlying virus

Plantar Wart Removal Recovery

Complete wart removal may require more than one treatment and take a few weeks to destroy the wart completely. Your podiatrist can discuss recovery procedures with you. Regardless of the treatment approaches undertaken, it is important that the patient follow the surgeon’s instructions, including all home care and medication that has been prescribed, as well as follow-up visits with the surgeon. Warts may return, requiring further treatment.

If there is no response to treatment, further diagnostic evaluation may be necessary. In such cases, the surgeon can perform a biopsy to rule out other potential causes for the growth. Although there are many folk remedies for warts, patients should be aware that these remain unproven and may be dangerous. Patients should never try to remove warts themselves. This can do more harm than good.

FAQs for Plantar Warts

WHAT CAUSES PLANTAR WARTS?

Plantar warts are typically a result of the human papillomavirus, also known as HPV. Since they are highly contagious, many people will suffer from warts after walking barefoot in places like a hotels, tanning salons, public restroom, locker room or at the swimming pool. A plantar wart is a virus, therefore it acts like one. It can adapt, assimilate, replicate and more. That is why you may notice that what started as one small “lesion” can turn into a bigger one, or many lesions. Call our highly-skilled, award-winning plantar wart specialists in Louisville, KY today at (502) 808-3668 to make your appointment.

WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?

These warts are typically round in shape, hard, can be a variety of colors and are grainy. They can range from being small in size to rather large. Often times, if you look closely enough, you will see little “black or red dots” within the wart. Call our highly-skilled, award-winning plantar wart specialists in Louisville, KY today at (502) 808-3668 to make your appointment.

WHERE DO THEY POP UP?

These warts are typically going to be found on a person’s heels, between the toes, on the side of the big toe, or the balls of their feet, though some people will also get them on their hands.

WHO GETS WARTS?

Virtually anyone can get a wart. However, warts are most common in people between the ages of 6 and 40.

WHAT DO WARTS DO TO THE FOOT?

Below the surface of the skin, the virus will infect the skin cells, leading to the creation of a wart at the surface. This is why when one removes or pulls a wart out, it typically leaves a large hole in the skin. They can be rather deep depending on how severe the skin infection is. At New Horizons Foot and Ankle Associates in Louisville, KY we offer several treatment options to rid you of plantar warts. Our wart specialist is nationally-ranked to have one of the highest success rates in successfully treating patients with both simple warts to complex warts. In fact, we are a highly referred to practice by other doctors including dermatologists and other podiatrists. Call our highly-skilled, award-winning plantar wart specialists in Louisville, KY today at (502) 808-3668 to make your appointment.

HOW DO YOU GET RID OF PLANTAR WARTS?

There are several treatments that patients can try. At home, many people will try to cut them away but this can be dangerous and lead to the infection spreading. Also, trying to cut warts away without help can cause a lot of bleeding, which can also be dangerous. We advise against this method.

Anyone looking to treat a wart at home should try over-the-counter medication instead. These may include placing a medicated bandage on top of the wart. Sometimes, this can cause the wart to go away, though it is not effective for everyone.

One of the other methods for removing a wart using a freezing technique called cryotherapy or cryosurgery. Although there are some over-the-counter solutions for this, they do not reach the clinical efficacy ratings as the higher-end technology utilized by our office. We also offer other treatment options such as acid treatments, laser ablation, surgical excision, and state-of-the-art microwave therapy. Call our highly-skilled, award-winning plantar wart specialists in Louisville, KY today at (502) 808-3668 to make your appointment

WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO SEEK TREATMENT?

Immediately. It is critical that anyone who is suffering from warts get help right away. These are highly infectious and will spread. The best way to prevent this is to visit our office immediately so that we can eliminate the wart before it leads to severe discomfort or multiplication. We offer the widest range of treatment options in Kentucky, with outstanding success rate of over 98.9% (as of 7/23/23). Call our highly-skilled, award-winning plantar wart specialists in Louisville, KY today at (502) 808-3668 to make your appointment.

To find out more about wart removal options and how your podiatrist can help, talk with the experts. Call the podiatrists at New Horizons Foot and Ankle Associates in Louisville, KY. You can reach them in the office by calling (502) 808-3668, so call today!

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