The Secrets to Removing Warts

If you give them time, most warts will simply disappear on their own — although they may take more than a year to do so. But if you’re looking to cure your warts in a shorter time frame, try one of these remedies to remove those unsightly bumps.

Preventing Warts 
You hear a lot of talk about plantar warts and palmer warts, but all warts are caused by the same virus: HPV (the human papillomavirus). And avoiding warts is a simple matter of preventing infection by the virus. Here are the best ways to avoid warts.

• Don’t touch warts. Picking at a wart (or even touching one) can help the virus spread. Try to minimize your contact with warts, and wash hands thoroughly afterward if you do touch one.
• Protect cuts and scrapes. The virus often enters your body through an open cut or wound, so be sure to protect your body from infection with HPV by covering your cuts and scrapes with bandages.
• Wear shoes. Many people pick up the wart virus at public pools or gym shower rooms, where the wet environment helps HPV survive and thrive. Invest in a simple pair of flip-flops to wear when you’re out to protect your feet from plantar warts.

Home Remedies for Warts
Many warts respond well to simple home remedies — and these are often much less painful and expensive than professional treatments. Keep in mind, though, it may still take several weeks for these treatments to remove your warts. Here are a few effective cures to try.

• Over-the-counter medications. You’ll find several different wart removal formulations — in creams, liquids, or even embedded right into bandages — that can help slowly cure warts. Most contain some variation on salicylic acid, the acne medication that can also do wonders for warts. Doctors recommend soaking the wart in warm water for several minutes and gently rubbing the surface with a pumice or emery board before applying the compound.
• Duct tape. It sounds like a crazy old wives’ tale, but medical studies have shown that duct tape can help cure warts — and some studies have shown that it can be just as effective at removing warts as the surgical techniques doctors use. Doctors recommend roughing up the wart first with a pumice or emery board, and perhaps applying an over-the-counter wart removal medication before applying the duct tape. Keep the duct tape on for six days, soak and rough up the wart again, then reapply the duct tape.

Professional Wart Cures
If the home wart remedies don’t solve your problem — or the warts are in a place where they become painful — it may be time to visit your doctor for a more effective wart cure. Here are some of the techniques doctors use to remove warts.

• Surgical techniques. Your doctor can remove the wart by burning it with a laser, freezing it with liquid nitrogen, or simply cutting it out. These treatments will remove your warts quickly, but they do involve some pain.
• Medications. Your doctor can inject an antiviral medication into your warts, or prescribe a topical treatment called Aldara that can help boost your immune system’s response to help kill off the wart virus.