Plantar Wart Treatment

Plantar warts are an infection caused by human papilloma virus (HPV). It is possible to catch the virus from contact with others that have warts, or even from walking barefoot on surfaces that others have walked on.

Ways to avoid HPV include:

• avoid touching warts on those who have them
• don’t share shoes and socks
• don’t walk barefoot in communal showers

Many people carry HPV without even realising it. Once you have had a wart, it is impossible to get rid of HPV from the body.

Treatment of plantar warts has previously involved destroying wart tissue in various ways including:

• wart paints and other chemical methods
• using liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart
• cauterisation or the burning of wart tissue

These methods have the disadvantage of causing indiscriminate damage to surrounding normal skin, causing blisters or other problems.

In difficult cases, doctors have even resorted to surgery to remove plantar warts.

Our laser treatment for plantar warts is the most gentle way of ridding plantar warts, without harming normal skin. At Remedy Laser we use a Nd:YAG laser to penetrate into the skin and destroy the HPV virus particles themselves, without damaging any tissue. Even most other laser treatments are not this selective.

You will not notice any change in the wart immediately after treatment, but because the virus has been effectively eliminated, the wart will gradually die and blacken over the following weeks. In time your body’s natural processes will repair the wart and all trace of it will disappear.

At Remedy Laser we use a laser beam whose diameter is matched to the size of the plantar wart. This way there is minimal damage to normal tissue around the wart. Larger warts might require multiple shots in a honeycomb pattern.

Destruction of virus particles causes heat which can be experienced as pain. At Remedy Laser we use a sophisticated air cooling system to minimise discomfort to you.

Laser treatment of plantar warts at Remedy laser is a simple walk-in and walk-out procedure, with no down time required.

In many cases just one treatment session is required. Some warts are more resistant than others however, and in difficult cases up to dozen treatment sessions might be needed. The laser settings are generally increased for each subsequent treatment until success is achieved.

The higher laser settings that are required for warts that are difficult to treat can sometimes cause damage to surrounding tissue. This can very occasionally lead to pain and blistering. The likelihood of this happening is lower than with other treatment methods mentioned above.