Warts can appear on anyone's body. In many cases, they go away on their own, but sometimes it is necessary to remove them. Of course, wart removal is best done in a healthcare setting. Self-treatment of such tumors may be fruitless, or, conversely, lead to their injury. You will learn about where you can get rid of warts in the next article.
Who can get warts?
Anyone can get warts, but the chance of getting infected with the papilloma virus is highest in:
- children and adolescents;
- adults and children have the habit of biting their nails, biting their prongs;
- people with weakened immune systems.
In children, warts often go away on their own without treatment. A dermatologist should be consulted if warts bother the child (eg, are painful) 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 certain types of warts.
Warts (common)
If your child has a wart on his face, be sure to check his or her hands - chances are you'll also see warts there. This virus is usually spread to the skin of the face when touched or when children bite their nails.
Raw warts:
- more commonly on the fingers, around the fingernails and the back of the palm;
- more common in places where the skin is often damaged, for example in areas where there are ridges, or where there is a habit of biting nails;
- often they look like a small (compressed) nodule with a rough, uneven surface;
- There may be black spots on the surface (which are actually small blood vessels), sometimes mistakenly referred to as the "root" of the wart.
Plantar warts
They appear on the soles of the feet and are sometimes difficult to treat.
Plantar warts:
- appear more on the soles of the feet;
- can grow, merge and form so-called clusters (mosaic warts);
- usually flatter or growing inward (due to pressure created by walking);
- pain, especially with pressure;
- often causes a sensation like a pebble in a shoe;
- There may be black dots on the surface.
Flat warts
- can appear anywhere, but as a rule, usually occurs 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, many and located in groups, often appear in large numbers - from 20 to 100 at once.
Filiform warts (swarm of acrochords)
- look like long threads or thin finger-like threads;
- commonly found in the face: around the mouth, eyes and nose;
- tends to grow rapidly.
Do I need to remove 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 - cause the appearance of different types of warts, from 1 to 4 - cause warts, 49, 28, 3 and 10 - flat, HPV 27 - normal.
Oncogenic HPV types that require special attention, such as 52, 39, 33, 31, 30, 70, 40, 51, 55, 61-64, can cause precancerous conditions and areconsidered 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 are formed.
The following papillomaviruses, which can colonize the external genitalia and mucous membranes, are recognized as particularly dangerous - types 70, 66, 56, 33, 31, 18, 16. Growing warts raises the question, can warts be gone, is it dangerous or not?
In any case, a person should consult a dermatologist to determine the nature of the tumor, its type. In addition to eliminating cosmetic discomfort, increasing the risk of lesions for growth, treatment or removal of the tumor is required because the presence of viral foci causes spread to other areas. other skin and also have a risk of the tumor degenerating into melanoma. Be sure to consult a dermatologist to find out what type of warts, papillomas, or cysts you have and determine the best way to get rid of them.
Do not postpone your visit if:
- The tumor is bleeding or tearing;
- If the wart becomes painful, itchy, or burning
- Change color, become non-uniform in color, change shape and size
- The number of warts is increasing, many girls appear
- If the wart is located in a conspicuous place, it is often traumatic and psychologically uncomfortable.
It may not be safe to do it yourself at home, and all doctors agree that squeezing at home is dangerous and shouldn't be for the following reasons:
- Self-removal of the accumulation often leads to the formation of scars, scars or burns of the proximal skin tissue;
- With different 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 probability of turning a real wart into a malignant cancer is not great, but there is still such a risk, and after self-removal of any tumor, without diagnosis and hysteroscopy. of the material removed, there may be adverse consequences.
How to diagnose warts?
In the case of warts, to confirm the diagnosis, a dermatologist usually simply needs to look at them. In 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 a laboratory, where it is examined under a microscope. Don't worry - this is a quick and safe procedure.
How to treat warts?
In children, warts usually go away on their own without any treatment.
In adults, warts are in most cases completely harmless, but unlike children, they sometimes don't go away on their own.
A dermatologist should be consulted if:
- warts change shape, color, size;
- warts hurt you;
- the number of warts increased.
There are different methods to remove warts. The choice of one method or the other depends on the age of the patient, the state of health, as well as the type of wart.
Warts - increase body
Often papillomas (warts) are confused with moles. Warts, like moles, can be removed in similar ways. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, traditional surgery leaves marks on the skin anyway.
Surgical removal of the wart is generally not recommended because warts often grow back.
With cryotherapy and laser removal, it is not always possible to precisely control the depth of impact on the tissue. Coagulation allows you to control the depth of exposure, but the risk of scarring remains. Therefore, sometimes a combination of several methods is used. Other wart treatments include topical salicylic acid, duct tape, and chemical treatments.
Basic methods to remove warts
As practice shows, many patients try to get rid of them with folk methods. However, it should be understood that folk methods by themselves are not highly effective, and in some cases can even be dangerous. The correct procedure is possible only if the specialist is fighting not only the skin manifestations of the virus, but also its aetiology. There are several methods to remove these tumors:
- Radio waves. . . A relatively new, but well-proven method. With the help of a special device, a radio wave of a certain frequency is exposed to the process of skin formation. The advantage of this method is that it allows you to remove both the wart and its root.
- Electrolytic coagulation.This term masks the cauterization of the cancer using a special electrode. Thanks to local anesthesia, all procedures are carried out, you can always be sure that you will not experience any negative sensations.
- A liquid nitrogen.Another well-known method. Nitrogen freezes the wart and its root, so a really quick and high-quality removal is done.
To get rid of warts, a dermatologist may use:
- Cryotherapy(liquid nitrogen) is the most common method for removing vulvar warts in adults and older children, and it's not too painful. But usually the procedure needs to be repeated. And the use of this method in dark-skinned people can lead to the formation of dark spots on the skin.
- Electrosurgery and curettage. . . Electrosurgery (electrocautery) is an effective way to remove vulvar warts, milia, and warts. Scraping is the method of using a sharp knife or special tool (grating) to scrape the wart. After curettage, conduct electrocautery, bandage the wound.
Often these two procedures are used together. Dermatologists can remove warts by scraping before or after curettage.
Your doctor may also surgically remove the wart.
In case the above methods do not bring satisfactory results, the dermatologist may use one of the following methods:
- Laser treatment is performed under local anesthesia;
- A chemical anesthetic is often prescribed to treat flat warts. Such peeling is carried out daily at home, for this they use salicylic acid and glycolic acid preparations;
- Immunotherapy in the treatment of warts is a way to activate the body's defenses. Prescribed in cases where other types of therapy do not bring positive results.
One of the types of immunotherapy is applying a special substance to the wart. An allergic reaction occurs around treated warts, which can help the body deal with them. Another type of immunotherapy is an injection of interferon inside the wart. Injections can strengthen immunity and make the body fight off viruses.
Unfortunately, there is no way that will allow you to get rid of warts once and for all with 100% guarantee. They can reappear in the old place and reappear in the new place. Sometimes it seems that new warts appear faster than old ones go away. This happens if the virus infects the cells adjacent to the wart before the wart is removed. That's why new warts often appear near the old site.
Self-treatment and removal
There are many ways to get rid of warts by folk methods quite successfully, but this does not mean that you should forget about traditional medicine and regularly self-medicate.
Any recipes for wart removal, individual wart removal videos, reviews of people and cosmetologists - this is just an introductory material that shows that wart removal in children and adultsbig is achievable without consequences.
But you should never experiment and jump to conclusions - every tumor on the human body should be shown to a doctor, studied by a doctor using laboratory tests, and only afterthat is cured or eliminated. But despite this, we decided to introduce you to some of the methods used to get rid of warts at home. We hope that this document, as we have advised, will be informative only for you.
Since the cost of wart removal in some clinics and beauty salons scares people a little, they try to treat their cancer on their own, it happens like this.
Light bulb handling
One whole onion soaked in vinegar for about two hours, chopped and tied over the wart overnight. The procedure is carried out until the wart disappears.
Wood ash treatment
Wood ash, preferably fresh, should be diluted with clean water until a homogeneous paste is formed, which should be applied to the warts daily until they disappear.
Get rid of warts with celandine
Warts are applied with fresh celandine juice in the morning and evening. Due to the alkaloids it contains, warts can quickly be treated. They dry up and disappear. This procedure should be repeated until the wart is completely gone. Be careful when using celandine juice, not on healthy skin, as it is quite caustic.
Removal of warts and papillomas by cauterization
This method is painful, but according to many people, it is quite effective. It is necessary to take a dry stick of any twig and hold it over the fire. When it starts to smolder, you need to cool the tumor with heat. Should do this a few times, after 5-7 days the wart will disappear.
As you can see, in addition to the fact that you can buy medicine to get rid of warts at the pharmacy, you can still grow them in your own summer cottage or find them in your own. Experiment or not is up to you, but we've made our choice and have recommended it to you a few times.
After removing the papilloma
Remember that simply removing the wart will not clear the virus from the body. After a long time or not very long, papillomas may reappear. This is due to the presence of viral particles. In order for the virus to go away for a long time, it is necessary to take preventive measures. How to do it?
Vitamin therapy. Conducting a course of two to three months, focusing on a high concentration of zinc in vitamin and mineral complexes is carried out. Zinc inhibits the replication of viral particles. Thus, the virus that causes human papillomavirus dies once and for all.
- Maintain good personal hygiene. Good skin care.
- Avoid stress, overwork, normalize daily routines. Sleep at least eight hours a day.
- Eat well.
- Try not to over-refrigerate, avoid colds after removing warts for the first three months, and better - six months.
- Check for intestinal dysbiosis. If so, join a probiotic treatment.
- See an infectious disease specialist or immunologist. Your doctor will prescribe you antiviral medications that stimulate your immune system.
When thinking about wart removal, see a qualified specialist first.
Suspected papillomas are best removed during an appointment with an oncologist.
Such formations should preferably be subjected to controlled histological examination.
Prevent
To prevent the appearance of warts, dermatologists recommend the following:
- does not hurt the wart;
- wearing slippers or other special shoes when visiting swimming pools, as well as in public bathrooms and changing rooms;
- do not touch other people's warts;
- Dry your feet with warts, moisture tends to spread warts.