Warts are benign (noncancerous) growths that form on your skin. They’re extremely common, and they affect about 33% of children and teens, and up to 5% of adults.
Warts range in size, shape, and location. They can appear almost anywhere, from rounded lumps on your fingers to flat lesions on your face, and one of the most common types is the plantar wart.
Plantar warts look like calluses and they’re found on the soles of your feet. Most plantar warts are harmless — but depending on their size and location, they can be quite painful.
Bryon Butts, DPM, and our team at Performance Footcare PC offer plantar wart treatment for people of all ages. If you have a bothersome wart on the bottom of your foot, here’s what you can expect with treatment.
Like many different types of warts, plantar warts are caused by a virus. Plantar warts develop when human papillomavirus, or HPV, infects your skin.
The virus enters your body through a break in your skin, like a small scrape or cut, and a wart begins to form. Plantar warts grow down into your skin and form a hard patch of tissue that looks a lot like a callus. Many plantar warts have black pinpoints at the center, which are sometimes called wart seeds.
Plantar warts can grow anywhere on the soles of your feet. The most common locations for plantar warts are:
Some plantar warts don’t cause noticeable symptoms. However, if you have a large plantar wart in a weight-bearing part of your foot (like your heel), it can be painful when you stand or walk.
There are lots of over-the-counter wart treatments available. While these options may be effective for very small, surface-level warts, deeper warts can be difficult to treat.
Dr. Butts offers a variety of professional wart treatments at Performance Footcare PC. If you’re diagnosed with a plantar wart, our team strives to find a wart removal method that works for you.
CryoProbe is a noninvasive procedure that relies on extreme cold to treat plantar warts. Dr. Butts performs CryoProbe treatment in the office, and it takes just a few minutes.
He places the small handheld device over your plantar wart and holds it in place briefly. Freezing temperatures target the wart tissue and kill it. It’s completely painless. After the procedure, the wart turns black and falls off.
Dr. Butts may prescribe Cantharidin if your plantar wart is large or located deep in your skin. Cantharidin is a topical ointment that you apply to your plantar wart. When you use it as prescribed, it makes your skin blister, which lifts the wart. Treatment makes the wart tissue die and eventually, it falls off.
There’s no downtime required with plantar wart treatment at Performance Footcare PC. Once you start wart treatment, it may take several weeks for the wart tissue to die and fall off.
Smaller warts may only require one treatment session. But if you have a larger or deeper wart, multiple treatments may be necessary. Dr. Butts and our team continue monitoring your condition until the wart is gone.
If you had pain or discomfort from your wart, you can expect it to dissipate as the sole of your foot starts healing. Once the plantar wart disappears, there’s nothing more you need to do.
Plantar warts can be uncomfortable and embarrassing, but you don’t have to live with them. Learn more about wart removal at Performance Footcare PC. Contact us online or call to make an appointment.
