Warts are characterized by small, painless but contagious skin growths occurring usually on hands and feet. Looking like a cauliflower, they emerge as a result of human papilloma virus 2 and 7, the two particular types of viral infection. They may transmit from one person to the other through broken skin. Generally, they fade off on their own after a couple of days but may remain defined for a longer period of time.
There are different types of warts depending on the nature of their position on human body: plantar warts occur on the bottom of the foot; Flat warts usually surface in large numbers on the face, legs, hand and other parts of the body; Periungual warts take place under or around the nail; Filiform warts arise on the face as a single long stalk; Genital warts appear on genitalia; and Mosaic wart that emerge on the hands and soles of the feet in clustered forms.
Common and harmless warts create only cosmetic problems annoying the inflicted people. For common warts, the use of salicylic acid and freezing medication has long been regarded as the best result-oriented treatment options. One can treat his warts individually by purchasing over-the-counter-medications consisting of salicylic acid or freezing elements.
It is worth-mentioning here that keratin is the main factor which develops warts and dead skin cells that cover warts. To dissolve keratin, salicylic acid works a great deal. This acid is usually available in the form of drops, pads, and gels. They can be applied on different warts of different size. On the other hand, aerosol wart treatments available in the forms of sprays freeze the warts at as decreased temperature as 70 F.
It is also believed that warts can be suffocated by using non-breathing tapes, such as electrical tape or duct tape. After placing the tape over the warts for about one week, the warts are soaked in water and scraped with a pumice stone or emery board.
Apart from these over-the-counter-products, several prescribed medications are also used for warts treatment. Among them Imiquimod, Cantharidin, Dinitrochlorobenzene, Fluorouracil are some of the medicines applied directly on to the warts that not only stir up the natural immune system to fight the warts virus but also DNA synthesis in the virus-affected cells found in warts. Because of these characteristics, these medicines appear effective in removing common warts.
In case the traditional methods fail to yield results, the dermatologists use surgical treatments which include mainly curettage of the wart, laser treatment and infrared coagulator to remove the warts from the skin.