Warts are growths on the surface of the skin caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). While usually benign, these pesky bumps are in fact contagious.
Warts can be stubborn things to get rid of and can sometimes take months to resolve. You may have visited your GP for a wart where just freezing the wart can be an effective treatment. If however it doesn’t go away with a couple of freezing treatments, you may need to see a dermatologist to receive different treatment. The quicker you get on to the wart the easiest it will be to remove it.
Warts are contagious and you are more likely to pick them up in warm moist areas such as swimming pools or public showers. People who sweat more may be more prone and it is very common to see in children as they may pick them up at school from others.
Treatment in our clinic can involve different strength topicals that illicit the immune system to, in a sense, ‘’wake up’’ and shock the immune system to expel the viral skin lesion. The immune system will then start to fight the virus from the inside; the treatments can also attack the wart from the outside.
The topical solutions we use on the wart may provoke a blister to develop and this will typically begin to heal within a week. Once the blister resolves, so does that wart.
Sometimes, with in-clinic medication, only one or two treatments are necessary. We will also give you home treatment to do in the weeks after, to make sure the wart doesn’t have a chance to grow back! As we know, warts are stubborn little things and need to be attacked quite regularly to stop spreading and remove them for good!
Helpful hints to avoid getting warts
As warts thrive in hot/sweaty conditions, if you sweat a lot, wear cool clothing/change socks frequently etc. Baby powder can be an option to put on the feet before socks, to soak up any excess sweat.
Wear thongs in public showers to avoid picking up viral warts
If you do have some warts, avoid picking/scratching them as they can directly spread via this method! Call us on 03 9039 5644 for an appointment to clear those warts for good!