I had a plantar wart on my foot. So I tried a drugstore cure to help pull out the root at home. Here's what to expect from using a Salicylic acid patch like I did.
I blamed my plantar's wart on my unparalleled commitment to fitness. And therefore I blamed fitness for spending my Friday night pulling out a plantar wart root.
It's the kind of injury a 15 year old boy on swim team, or those elite marathoners who run until they poop in their pants would get.
With my running schedule amounting to chasing a rogue backyard chicken back into its (admittedly delightful) chicken coop I decided me getting a wart was probably just bad luck.
So the plan to terminate this little toe lump began. I'm not new to conducting medical experiments on myself.
There was the frozen yogurt tampon treatment for yeast infections for example. Or the continuously drinking water for a bladder infection treatment. Both are based on science and both work surprisingly well.
I remember being very young, maybe 7 or 8 and having a plantar wart. It was on the bottom of my foot and had to be cut out by my doctor. This was back in the day when doctors actually doctored. Mine even knew how to clean out ear wax and give stitches.
I wasn't looking forward to having a doctor dig a hole out of my foot so like a sensible person, I tried to dig a hole out of my foot myself.
Not with a knife, but with Salicylic acid, the active ingredient that gets rid of warts by killing the skin. It's a little more scientific than that but that's the gist of it. And it's much less terrifying than pulling out a wart with tweezers or a pin.
Table of Contents
How to Get Rid of Plantar Warts
- Buy a wart removal kit. They're all basically the same. My pharmacist recommended the cheapest one on the shelf because it came with a tiny Salicylic pad and bandaids which would work well for the bizarre "between my toes" plantar wart.
- Remove the wart pads from the kit and peel one off. Put it directly over your (gross) wart and stick it down.
- Cover your Salicylic pad with the provided bandaid. It'll either be a regular oblong bandaid or a round, soft pad bandaid.
- Replace the pad and bandaid every 2 days until your skin has died and comes off naturally. You may need to pull the skin a bit, pulling the root of the plantar wart with it! Gross. Yet weirdly satisfying.
Don't try to just hack away at your plantar wart with a pumice stone, it won't get rid of it. You have to treat it, and a kit cure actually works to remove plantar warts. Which was shocking to me, I don't mind telling you.
Don't be alarmed if your wart fell off and left a hole. That's what's supposed to happen.
Pulling out root with tweezers
After treatment if the wart doesn't come out with you can now proceed with a set of tweezers. The wart pad will have deadened the wart root, so you'll be able to easily pull it out with a set of tweezers. For really precision tweezing, buy tick remover tweezers!
What causes plantar warts
- Plantar warts are actually from a viral infection. They develop when cuts or cracks on the bottom of your feet come into contact with human papillomavirus (HPV.) The virus enters your body through the cut or crack.
- There are more than 100 strains of HPV with only a few of them causing plantar warts on your feet. Other types of the virus will only cause warts on the hands, mouth or ... private parts.
- You're more prone to a warts if you have a weakened immune system.
Identifying a plantar wart
- You can identify a plantar wart aka verruca by the tiny circle like a pinhead with a minuscule black dot in the centre. It isn't the wart that causes pain, it's the callous that builds up around it.
- The typical signs and symptoms are pain at the area of a circle like hard callous and of course what makes them unique is that they grow inward so you won't see the typical raised bump typical of other warts.
The Salicylic acid pad placed over the ... let's call it a beauty mark from now on ... I just feel better about it that way.
I used this Dr. Scholl's kit and the bandaids are perfectly clear, great for wrapping around a toe. Probably not so great for the bottom of your foot. This kit would be better for that.
There's also a LOT of talk on the Internet about people wrapping their feet in duct tape to get rid of plantar warts. I decided I wasn't so poor that I had to Red Green my way out of a wart. I could spend the $10 on medicine.
Alternative methods
A 2010 scientific study on plantar wart treatment proved that they are equally likely to disappear within 13 weeks using any of these 3 methods:
- Salicylic acid (like you see me using here)
- Cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen)
- Ignoring it
That's right. Warts, but only a plantar wart specifically, is as likely to go be gone in 13 weeks whether you use an acid patch, liquid nitrogen or do nothing at all.
Also, as far as alternative methods go, these are great substitutes for shaving cream if you ever run out.
You just stick the bandaid down and then pull away the wrapping.
You can't see it at all. NO one will know you're treating ..... a beauty mark.
Results
After a few days your skin turns white and eventually just pulls away with your body, the root of the plantar wart attached. You're welcome for not including that photo.
What you're left with is a small hole where the dead skin has pulled out, and some pinkish skin underneath. It all fills in by itself within a few days in that magical way skin works.
Because it regenerates itself when we cut ourselves wide open, we forgive skin for also drying, sagging, wrinkling and flapping.
Both cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen) and Salicylic acid work within a week. If you're more comfortable with having a doctor keep an eye on it, go the cryotherapy route. NOTE: Your plantar wart may require a few treatments to get rid of it for good.
Oh yes you sure can. Especially in warm humid areas like swimming pools or change rooms with showers because the HPV virus that causes plantar warts THRIVES in those conditions.
Not really no. If it's hurting you then, yes by all means have it removed or remove it yourself. It may come back the same way a dandelion does if you don't get the whole root.
If it isn't causing discomfort you can leave it and within a year or two the wart will have run its course and disappear forever.
All went well and my plantar wart was gone, until a few weeks later it seemed to come back. I couldn't really see it but it felt the same as it did when I thought I had that elite runner's injury. So I put another pad on it and started the treatment over again just in case.
THIS time I got no root, and just ended up with a raw toe which probably had thin, sensitive skin after being killed off just a few weeks earlier. I may have jumped the gun on retreating.
So just be careful of that.
Do I recommend these wart treatments? Yes.
Update: It's several years later and there has been no recurrence of the beauty mark.
If you're a fan of hot dogs I have an instant heartburn cure for you and an immediately way to stop the burning if you get hot sauce in your eye. All tried and tested by me in between my relentless fitness regime.
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Hi,
I'm no expert, but with it being between the toes, it looks more like a corn than plantar's wart, which are more common on the sole of the foot. In appearance, they are very similar. I also had one (corn) in the exact same location. They become extremely painful. I suppose the home treatment would be the same, but I just wanted to put it out to your readers as the etiology is completely different. As you correctly say, warts are viral in origin, but corns are friction related (2 toes rubbing each other the wrong way 😄).
I always enjoy your blogs.
Amrita, I've had both and I agree. This seems more like a corn.
It’s a Planters wart, there’s the lil root center
Corns have an inner core that can be soft or hard. It's made of keratin and is called a nucleus. Soft corns are the corns that form between toes.
I am incredibly disappointed that you didn't post the root! Also, Karen haaas bumblefoot! Glad it worked for you!
Karen--I can't tell you how relieved I was when I figured out the black spot in the first photo was your toenail polish, not the plantar wart.
100% thought that as well! LOL
Money saving tip: buy the corn remover pad kit. Same salicylic acid for about 3 bucks. I am really prone to those suckers. Didn’t know it was a virus so thanks.
Your method sounds so easy and effective. As a teenager my father instructed me to get a piece of leather with a hole in it and place it over the wart with the wart lined up with the hole. Then place the tip of a strike anywhere match on top of the wart and then light it. (that's the hard part). It worked!
It's also possible to leave it so long it grows all the way in to your heel back to the bone and the Dr has to take it out by injecting the cryo stuff so deep into your heel that you scream and it makes kids in the waiting room cry and you forever have a numb spot on your foot. You know, hypothetically.
I have plantar warts with blood vessels.
How to get rid of it.
I don't know what to do.
I posed a comment, but this worked for my son, while other products did not. read the directions and reviews carefully.
Hey,
Only thing that has ever worked for me was a soldering iron. You need to hold it there until you get a pop or puff of smoke... it will burn like heck but will codderize the wound and I have never had it come back.
I did this after years and thousands of dollars of treatments to a large wart on my knee.
Cheers,
Steve
OMG.
Just sayin'
I had plantar warts DUG out on both feet - ready to be finally done after thirty years of messing around with every home remedy mentioned here. Very painful and bloody. Feet healed beautifully, but it wasn’t long before the pain returned. Not sure if it is plantar warts or the callous that has now hit the nerve balls on the base of my feet causing toes to literally go numb and remain numb Cannot be on my feet more than a few hours at a time. Disappointing to say the least. Will not have them dug out again
Sure wish my pediatrician would have googled the procedure before telling me this would be the end of these nasty things. 😊
What’s the story with putting a drop of blood inside a cut open “wart”? Two people wrote in about that! Can I use my own blood? One said her aunt did it for her, so I’m really wondering what’s the right way... and yes it does sound gross... but it can’t hurt to try. So please let me know.
I wish I had found this article sooner. I would've shared my experience with everyone. In the summer of 1978ish(?), I had one on the heal of my foot. I went to the doctor to have it burned out. All went well. The freezing medication wasn't as painful as I had worked it out in my head. Great, all's good! I was laying belly down on the exam table(yes they aren't just for laying on your back with your feet in the stirrups). The doctor placed a sterile paper dressing over my foot, and put some rubber gloves on. He tested and area to see if I was frozen enough, and he proceeded with the operation, minor as it may be. I soon heard the machine and I thought everything was going well, as did he. I told him I could feel some heat, and looked over my shoulder. I saw him spinning around the room with the burning paper dressing stuck to his rubber-gloved hands, as he was heading for the little sink doctors usually have in their exam rooms. Fortunately, he managed to put the fire out and remove the remains of his rubber gloves. I was busting laughing, he was red from dancing his way to the sink and I'm sure embarrassment. He put the charred mass of paper and rubber in the garbage, and asked me if I wanted him to proceed. I said absolutely, I wasn't going to go through the injections again! He replaced his gloves and dispensed with the paper drape. I'm sure he never used that combination of procedures again in his practice. I stayed his patient until his retirement, about 5 years ago now. Neither one of us ever mentioned it again. Peace
You typed all that just to say what exactly
I'd say Tina is relaying a funny, related story. As one does. ~ karen!
Yea like, wtf? Go do something lol
HAHAHAHAHA!! Thats great! Thanks for the laugh on this too early of a morning!
Please, no plantar wart shaming! I’ve been plagued with these warts off and on all my life and assumed I had picked them up through my own carelessness through walking on infected carpets or walkways. Not so! I asked my dermatologist about causes and treatment during a visit about another matter. The warts are caused by a virus, and she’s pretty certain that once you have the virus, it lives on in your body and breaks out now and then (like cold sores). She gets them herself, and her husband (who happily walks barefoot everywhere) has never had one.
Yes, the over the counter treatment works fine, and repeated treatments can be necessary If you have a big wart or a cluster of little ones.
Thanks for this article, Karen. I have a wart or corn (jury's still out) in exactly the same place as yours. I'm also a runner. It has been there for over a year, and I largely ignored it, thinking it was a corn. I recently decided to deal with it and have been applying salicylic acid and covering it with black electrical tape. That formula that worked for me 20 years ago when I had a huge plantars wart on my heel. It also worked more recently on a wart my 7 year old son had on the bottom of his foot. In that case, I sprung for the kit but the pads weren't sticky enough and kept slipping off the site and getting lost in his socks. The electrical tape held in place better. Anyhow, I have been treating my wart for a few days now and have had some success. All the dead skin is peeling away and a little black thing came out the other day. But, I feel like there is something bigger underneath - like an iceberg! Maybe this is what you were talking about with your second wave, the pain that came after your initial success. I'm very curious to see where my wart journey ends up. l'm going to keep attacking the site of the wart and see what happens. Thanks for this post - nice to know I'm not the only one with a wart in this weird place. And - I should mention, when I had my first wart 20 years ago, I tried EVERYTHING - freezing, laser, trying to pull out the roots. It was all very painful and nothing worked. The most effective thing was taping over it with black electrical tape and applying salicylic acid. I also think there was a mental component - yes, this will sound a bit woo woo but when I let go of a thing I was upset about, the very last piece of the wart finally fell out. Thanks again! Paula
Dude, that is tiny, I’ve had a big one on the inside of my finger for almost a year now, nothing works, wish me luck. 🍀
I’m disgusting too! I’ve had a planters wart for a long time and finally bought a kit like the one you bought. I am wondering if I can still run while I am treating it...I am finally back to running consistently and don’t want to stop for a damn war.
Hi Sabrina! I kept running! But mine wasn't on the bottom of my foot. As long as it didn't hurt too much there was no reason not to I figured. Also, I think I decided that what I had was a corn as opposed to a plantar wart, but I'm still actually not sure, lol. Either way, it's gone and the remedy would be the same. ~ karen!
I never thought about a wart removal kit. My 4-year-old son recently got one of these on his foot. We will need to talk to a doctor to figure out what the best option would be.
Duct tape to fix a plantar wart? Yes!! My experience using it for this purpose was positive! When I chatted with my doctor about this wacky (yet ridiculously simple) cure, she agreed there is "something" in duct tape that breaks down the wart. Who knew?!
So...the money I'd save by trying the duct tape method first, could potentially go toward the purchase of a Rough Linen Proving Cloth...YES!!
Kate
Hi! The duct tape with what medication?
Duct tape only, no medication for that method
Hi Rosa,
As Tiana mentioned, the duct tape works without any medication! ;) -Kate
Actually there is nothing in duct tape that makes the wart go away, and the kits don’t have medicine in them either! The duct tape and the kits only purpose is to damage the skin around the wart so that they attract the attention of the cells that heal you! Your body doesn’t realize that the wart is bad for you so you have to do some thing else to get it’s attention!
OK....I just could not resist offering up this bit of magic. Way back in my teenage years, 70's I got a very painful plantar wart on the sole of my foot. My aunt said, 'trust me' and proceeded to carve away (with a razor blade) a huge amount of built up hard callous (no pain). She then made a small X with blade across the centre of wart just to 'open it up ' she said. them she proceeded to prick her finger and drew a drop of blood and placed it on the open skin of the wart and sent me on my way. The huge wart with root attached basically fell out a few days later!!! TRUE story!
What?! That's creepy and amazing all at once!
JOLIN OLSON
I do the same thing!
I know I'm a little late in joining the conversation but that's not a wart, it's corn. Trust me, I've had both, and more than once. The treatment is the same anyhow, just a lot quicker if it's only corn. Forget about all the home remedies and stick to the little salicylic acid discs that the pharmacist recommended to you
Yep, I plan to use the little pads. :) And I think you're right! I think it is a corn! Which is even worse. A plantar wart is something kids get, a corn is something the elderly get, lol. I've officially entered the realm of the elderly ~ karen!
LOL! So true about the elderly thing, although I've been getting them since high school if it makes you feel any better. My baby toe is turned in slightly so the bone always rubs a little on the inside of the toe next to it, hence the corn. And like you, it gets worse with running (especially in warm weather). So you see, it really is a cool sports injury!
Nope, Karen. I got a corn in the exact same place as you at 16 from I’ll- fitting Nike tennis shoes. I remember vividly because they were $42 and took my entire part time paycheck to pay for them.
Ah, the memories you have re-kindled.
Oh good! I'm still a yungun. ;) ~ karen
The question is: did the plantar wart go away after Judy's impaction was dug out?!!