Don't Let a Wart Ruin Your Holidays
Warts suck. Bottom line. A wart is a little rough bump on the skin caused by a viral infection.
Most of the time they appear on hands and feet. While mostly harmless, a wart should not be taken lightly either. Though they may resolve themselves in months or years, they can be a nuisance on the skin and some of them may be contagious. Apart from that, other people just find them repulsive. If left untreated, they may even spread to new areas of your skin.
Luckily, several treatments exist for removing a wart. Here are some of the few more common ones.
Salicylic Acid
Salicylic acid is an acid-based (if you haven’t figured that out) solution that can be purchased over the counter at most pharmacies. It’s corrosive so it softens the wart on the skin, causing the infected cells to break from the surface when filed off. Application of the substance is normally done through liquid, gel, or a patch. Despite its popularity, it’s a relatively slow treatment which takes a few months to complete and may cause skin irritations.
Cryotherapy
It means just like it sounds. Cryotherapy is essentially the act of freezing the wart with liquid nitrogen. This creates a blister between the wart and the healthy skin causing it to fall off. Be advised that, just like laser treatment, only a doctor can perform this procedure.
Laser Treatment
Apart from melting and freezing the wart, a doctor may also choose to burn it. A CO2 laser is used to vaporize and dry the infected tissue. The treatment does require local anesthetic on the skin and can be expensive. Sometimes more than one treatment may be required.
Of course, it goes without saying that none of these procedures should be done without consulting first with a dermatologist. For those seeking wart removal in the northern Dallas area, Precision Dermatology has clinics in Carrolton, Denton, and Frisco where an experienced dermatologist can help you rid yourself of a wart infection.
