Warts on my foot
 

I'm rather embarrassed about this but I have a few warts on the big toe of my right foot. I was wondering the best way to get rid of them the fastest from your experience. I have had some before and ended up cutting them out but because there are more than one on the same toe I would rather not do that.

Any suggestions would help, thank you.

There is a method using duct tape. Apply small pieces of duct tape to each wart. Leave the tape in place for six days; re-apply tape if it fell off. At the end of the six days, remove the duct tape, soak the wart in water, and gently sand it with an emery board or pumice stone. Leave the top off overnight, then re-apply for another six days. Repeat until the wart resolves .
I haven't tried it, but it sounds less painful then cutting it out.

why not go to a podiatrist and have him remove it. At the worst he'll use liquid nitrogen to burn 'em off, but usually these days they just give you pills.

Um...

I've never gotten pills for treatment of warts. It's always been liquid nitrogen, and typically if the wart is a plantar wart, the liquid nitrogen doesn't work. Liquid nitrogen is also less likely to work if the wart is on a thicker part of the skin.

The only thing that has gotten rid of both common warts and plantar warts in my case was the use of duct tape and a file. It's a lot cheaper than going to the doctor or receiving medication, and it's more effective.

Um..no, it's just another myth. I've tried it and didn't work shit.

In my case, the wart just simply went away after I tried a wide variety of things including using nitrogen, duct tape, pills, etc

Go to the doctor and have him prepare you a prescription for a strong mix of Salicylic Acid and Vaseline. Your pharmacist may just give it to you, but a doctors note gets your the strong stuff.

Go home and soak the wart in water as hot as you can stand it, until the skin is quite soft. Use a pumice stone, knife or whatever to cut away at the skin and get down to the wart (The honey comb looking stuff), the more you can expose at this stage, the better. Liberally apply the acid to the wart, trying to avoid the skin, and cover and leave it for 3-5 days (You can use duct tape if you want :D ). Once you remove the covering you will have a bunch of dead tissue that is white. Repeat the process of soaking and cutting/sanding away the dead skin.

What you are looking for is the core of the wart. It looks a bit different than the surrounding honey comb patterned cells and is long and skinny. You'll probably notice your getting into the core on the first application, but you need to keep going until you've got all of it. Once you've got all of the core out you can stop the treatment and let the wound heal over. Done deal.

whats the vaseline for?

delute the acid and suspend it in a spreadable compound.

There have been lots of case controlled studies on wart treatment. The verdict is in, and nothing works all that well. Liquid nitrogen is my favorite, but most expensive for you the patient. Plus you commonly need to have it done many times.
The salicylate cream mentioned works ok, but gets expensive as well.
Surgical removal comes with pain and infection risk.

Of these none is particullarly better than the rest, and none of them actually work all that well with high recurrance rates.

The thing that was cheapest was actually duct tape. Put it on, let it sit, then removed. Repeat a couple of times per day. It works just as well as the above.

I am not trying to discourage you, but any of the above mentioned treatments are just a likely to work (and fail).

Salicyclic Acid is also available in the States as a 40%plaster, called Mediplast. Warts sometimes resolve on their own in a few years but can get quite large and painful on the bottom of your foot in the mean time. The "home" remedies only work if a person is faithful over serveral months in applying them. For example, the duct tape takes at least 3 months in most cases and doesnt work well 20% of the time. If you can keep them small enough so they don't hurt when you stand on them, that might be the best goal.

The down side of being to violent in removal is that if there is scarring that occurs then the scar becomes a problem in it's own right. Liquid nitrogen can be very painful when applied, and local anesthesia on the bottom of the foot is also painful.

Good luck!

I had warts on my foot a few years back ad Salicylic Acid did the job in very short order.

In the UK you can buy "Wart Paint" from a pharmacist without prescription.

I prefer to just cut them off with a rusty shank. It gross, bloody, yet it has worked twice for me.

These all sound pretty grusome. I never had warts until I turned about 25 then I got a couple on my hand. I tried the acid and everything else. Here's what worked for me and you might want to try this method before the others.

I put straight vitamin E on the wart and on the inside of a bandaid. Then 3 times a day I would reapply always making sure the area was moist with vitamin E. After about 5 days it would go away. Then it reappeared a few months later and I did the treatment again.

They never came back.

Sounds like we're stuck with ourselves, warts and all.

if theyre small liquid nitrogen works well. Dr Scholls and Wart-Away or whoever the other wart removal company is have OTC freeze away treatment. It says for use on plantar warts as well but I wouldnt suggest it.

http://www.drscholls.com/product.aspx?prodid=67

http://www.drscholls.com/edu.aspx?eduid=10

theres a link about the freeze away

I had a wart on my hand once.. I went in for a quick freeze, it fell off and I had to put this cream on it. Its brand name is Aldera made by 3M Pharmaceuticals. Its Imiqumiod cream(dont ask me how to pronounce it) and heres a link about it http://health.yahoo.com/drug/d04125a1

if you have insurance the cost shouldnt be bad. The liquid nitrogen and Aldara(especially the aldera) are very expensive :( My doc was nice enough to slip me some samples and told me if I needed more to just ask since Im poor and in college. If youre pretty friendly with your doc this might work. However I called the pharmacy just to see how much it would be.. my co-pay is $5- $10 reguardless but they said something like $250 for 3 applications :(

Dr Scholls products(salicylic acid) work if you have time and dedication.. the freeze away stuff is supposed to work instantly compared to their liquid treatments.

I think it was the Clear Away that I used when I had a wart. You just put it on it, leave it on for a day (in my case) and it just literally sloughed off the next day. It was half off and I just pulled it off with very little pain or discomfort. I'd say check all your options on the bandaids+wart medicine before you go anywhere drastic.

my roommate freshman year has warts on his foot... back then he put this really smelly stuff on em...

now a couple years later he cuts em off with a razor blade every few weeks and keeps his foot wrapped up

I cut them out with fingernail clippers.

Just get a hold of it and twist. Just be sure you get it all or it's just going to grow back.

Just be aware of the new FDA black box warning Aldera got with liver toxicity. Its great stuff, but many of us are warry to use it because of the new warning.