How The Doctors Cure Warts Which wart-removal method your doctor uses depends on where the warts are located, how widespread they are and the pros and cons of each treatment.
walk sooner if you have it chemically removed rather than cut away. Scarring is yet another factor. The more aggressive the treatment – lasers, electrosurgery and curettage – the greater the risk of scarring. Warts around the fingernails are especially difficult to treat. These warts are inherently more resistant to treatment, and there’s usually more than one to contend with. What’s more, any of the treatments below could penetrate the nail and injure the nail root. You don’t want to cure your warts while permanently damaging your nails. If multiple warts have sprouted around your nails, don’t aggressively treat them. First try less drastic treatments, like salicylic acid or freezing, which are discussed below. They may then shrink enough to remove surgically. But regardless of which method you choose, you may have to have the wart treated more than once to completely kill the virus. Patch it up. A skin patch called Trans-Ver-Sal delivers a dose of salicylic acid that’s absorbed by your wart. You stick on a patch at night and remove it in the morning. But these patches may not work better than over-the-counter salicylic plasters or paint-on removers – and the treatment is more expensive. And don’t expect overnight results; you may have to patch up your warts for six weeks. As with over-the-counter salicylic treatments, these patches (available only by prescription) shouldn’t be used by people with diabetes or poor circulation. Freeze warts away. Your doctor may pare down the wart to expose its capillaries and swab or spray it with liquid nitrogen; the intense cold causes the wart to blister, scab and fall off. Essentially, liquid nitrogen gives the wart frostbite and kills it. The freezing itself takes about 30 seconds; you might feel pain for a few minutes, then discomfort for up to three days. The down side: It’s possible that you’ll need to undergo the treatment more than once. The up side: Freezing is least likely to leave a scar. Burn off the bumps. In electrosyrgery, the doctor gives you a local anesthetic and then uses an electric current to destroy the wart by burning it away. It ‘cooks’ the wart. And it smells like burning chicken feathers. This treatment is also likely to cause scarring. Cut warts away. In curettage, your doctor uses an instrument called a curette to scrape away the wart, often after it’s first anesthetized with a local anesthetic and burned with an electric needle. Curettage can cause scarring and is used for only the most serious warts. And it may not even kill off the virus, which may still be lurking in the skin around the wart. Zap warts away. In laser surgery, the doctor gives you local anesthesia and uses a laser beam – frequently the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser – to destroy your wart. This method can successfully remove large, stubborn warts, but it causes scarring perhaps more than other treatments and requires a lot of follow-up care. It’s also expensive, so you should probably try other treatments first. Go for the works. Some doctors opt for combination treatments, like apply salicylic acid at night and in the morning, paring down the wart and applying another medication like Condylox, an alcohol solution that is technically approved only to treat genital warts. |
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