Warts are benign skin growths, meaning they are not cancerous. They appear when a virus infects the top layer of the skin. Warts are contagious, meaning they can be spread by touching the wart itself or something that touched the wart.
There are many types of warts.
Common warts appear as rough bumps, and often grow on the fingers, around the nails, and on the backs of the hands. They are more common where the skin is open often from trauma.
Foot warts or plantar warts grow most often on the soles of the feet. They often are flat or grow inward due to pressure caused from walking. They can be painful as well.
Flat warts can appear anywhere, but are seen on the face usually in children, in the beard area in men, and on the legs in women. They tend to be smaller and smooth, and tend to grow in large numbers at a time (sometimes up to 100).
Filiform warts can grow very fast and look like long threads or thin finger-like growths that stick out.
Treatments
Treatments include topical medications, cryotherapy or freezing the wart. Sometimes the warts can be burned and scraped off (electrosurgery and curettage), or cut out (excision). There are additional treatments for difficult to treat warts. We have many treatment options available.
Outcome
There is no cure for the virus that causes warts, thus the warts can return to the same spot or appear in a new one. If they are not treated quickly, sometimes the old warts shed virus cells into the skin allowing new warts to grow around the first warts. Therefore it is best to prevent them by having us treat new warts as soon as they appear
