Causes and Treatment of Plantar Warts

Plantar warts, also known as verrucas are found on the soles of the feet. They are a common problem for many people and whilst not dangerous in any way, they can be painful, leading people to seek out methods of removal.

Causes

Plantar warts, like any other kind of wart, are caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus thrives in moist places and lives in the mucus beneath the tissue of the skin. The main points about the virus to note are:

• It can survive for long amounts of time without having a host body. For instance, it can stay, dormant on the moist floor of a shower cubicle for several weeks without dying, until it finds a host – i.e. an unsuspecting person – who walks on the area with bare feet.
• It is incurable. Once the virus is contracted, it remains. Symptoms may not always be present and the virus can lay dormant for years before flaring up. Warts may disappear on their own without any treatment and never come back or they could re-occur all the time after treatment.
• It enters the body through cracks in the skin. These cracks can be so tiny that they are not seen by the naked eye. Those who suffer from broken or dry skin can be especially susceptible to the infection.
• It is extremely contagious. Skin to skin contact with an infected person is all it takes for the infection to spread to somebody else. With plantar warts, sharing towels, walking barefoot in public swimming pools and changing rooms are the most common ways to contract the feet dwelling warts.

Appearance

Verrucas can appear slightly different to common warts because of their position on the body. They appear mostly on the ball or heel of the foot as these are the places which make contact with the ground. Because of this, they tend to be either flat or inverted as the weight of the body puts pressure on the warts whilst a person stands or walks.

This type of skin lesion is generally round, often leaving a ring of paler skin with a dark spot in the middle which is the clustered blood vessels. The color of the warts and nature of the hard skin they produce can often lead people to mistakenly thinking that they are calluses on the feet rather than verrucas. A good way of discerning whether or not this is true is that verrucas can be painful to stand on.

Treatment

Verrucas are not dangerous but should be treated so that they don’t cause pain or spread by sharing contact with other parts of the foot or body.

If the warts don’t go away on their own, which they often do, then a dermatologist will be able to give advice on the best course of action to take. There are a number of medical procedures which remove warts quickly, or alternatively, there are topical creams and gels such as Bazuka which are applied to the area. Finding the right option is an individual choice and with so many options out there, it should be relatively easy to find a fitting solution. 

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