Home Skin CareWarts Plantar warts: causes, symptoms and treatment

Plantar warts: causes, symptoms and treatment

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

Warts are benign skin lesions that can appear on different body parts. In the case of plantar warts, it is a condition that occurs on the sole, as its name says. It is precisely because of its location excruciating, making it difficult for people who suffer from it to walk. An infection causes these warts with a virus from the human papilloma family is why they are contagious. Their transmission is more frequent in public showers and bathrooms in sports centers.

Plantar warts can appear anywhere on the soles of the feet and can be confused with corns. Generally, a characteristic that differentiates them is the small black dots that these lesions present on their surface. After a plantar wart appears, it usually proliferates on the sole, creating small mosaics made up of smaller warts. To learn more about these skin lesions, we invite you to continue reading this article by FastlyHeal, plantar warts: causes, symptoms, and treatment.

Symptoms of plantar warts

There are two types of plantar warts, and symptoms vary from the kind of injury that caused the infection. Let’s know what the types of plantar warts and the symptoms they suggest are:

The Myrmecia wart

This wart is related to HPV-1 infection and is the most common plantar wart. A profound and unique wart characterizes it because it involves only a few parts of the sole. This injury is sensitive to touch and pressure, so the primary symptom it causes is a pain when walking or stepping. This type of plantar wart can be recognized because it significantly thickens the surface of the epidermis, making it much harder.

The superficial wart

It is the lesion associated with HPV-2. It is much easier to recognize because it is not unique but rather represents a set of mosaic warts very similar to calluses. These lesions are not painful and can appear on both the sole and the toes.

To determine what type of plantar wart we have been infected with, it is necessary to visit the doctor to perform a physical examination of the area that allows him to differentiate these lesions from other similar conditions such as fibrous scars and corns or granulomas caused by the presence of a body. Strange inside the skin.

Causes of plantar warts

Ancient beliefs claimed that if you grabbed a toad with your hands, it would become infected with warts, and nothing could be further from the truth. As we mentioned in the introduction, plantar warts are caused by contagion with a virus, which grows and survives easily in humid environments. Therefore, the cause of plantar wart infection is the exposure of the feet to places infected with a said virus, but also to excessive sweating of the extremities, which makes it easier for the virus to survive longer and spread.

Next, you will be able to know the most common forms of transmission:

  • Being barefoot in public showers.
  • Walking barefoot in gym, swimming pool, or sports center bathrooms.
  • Being barefoot in a sauna.
  • Wear borrowed footwear.
  • Use borrowed socks.
  • Dirty showers.

However, it is essential to note that for the virus to penetrate the body, it needs a slight injury on the sole that serves as a door, such as a cut, blister, and unhealed scar.

Plantar warts treatment

Fortunately, in most cases, plantar warts represent more of an aesthetic problem than a medical one since most of these lesions disappear on their own over time, approximately two years after infection. However, when it comes to a painful plantar wart, which causes discomfort when walking, the medical specialist must prescribe topical treatment to reduce the size of the lesions until they disappear.

A widespread treatment used by doctors for plantar warts is the topical application of liquid nitrogen after previously scraping the wart’s surface with the help of a scalpel. Nitrogen acts inside the lesion, burning it to eliminate it. After this treatment, the doctor will likely prescribe pain medication and dress the wound two times a day to avoid infection.

Warts can also be removed from the sole by applying a CO2 laser, which also burns the lesion, but for its application, the use of anesthesia is necessary, and the treatment may leave a mark or scar.

Tips to prevent plantar warts

  • Wear sandals in public bathrooms, on the edge of swimming pools and saunas.
  • Dry your feet well after showering, including the inside of your toes.
  • Do not wear socks with wet feet.
  • Do not use any footwear that has been worn during the infection with a plantar wart.
  • During the plantar wart treatment, it is necessary to cover the rest of the foot to prevent another contagion from occurring during its removal.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any type of diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any type of condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Plantar warts: causes, symptoms and treatment , we recommend that you enter our Skin, hair and nails category .

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