Can I cut off my wart? (2024)

FAQs

Can I cut off my wart? ›

Absolutely not. Filing, ripping, picking, burning, or cutting a wart on your own will most often make the presence of warts even worse on the foot and potentially on other skin areas of the body. This can result in infection or further spreading of the warts. The wart will either get larger or more numerous.

Don't try to cut the wart off with nail clippers or other blades. While this may seem like a logical solution, it will only address the top layer of the wart and not its roots. Trying to cut the wart off at home may cause bleeding, which will allow the wart to spread and invite further infection.

If you'd like to try it, take these steps: Cover the wart with duct tape for six days. Then soak the wart in water and gently remove dead tissue with a pumice stone or disposable emery board. Leave the wart exposed for about 12 hours, and then repeat the process until the wart is gone.

Infection: Infections can happen if you pick or cut a wart. Breaks in your skin allow bacteria to enter. If you develop an infection, you'll need medical treatment with antibiotics. Pain: Most warts don't hurt.

If the entire wart is not removed, it can easily grow back. Additionally, the incision made to remove the original wart can become infected with HPV, which can also cause the wart to come back. This is why you should not remove your wart at home.

Absolutely not. Filing, ripping, picking, burning, or cutting a wart on your own will most often make the presence of warts even worse on the foot and potentially on other skin areas of the body. This can result in infection or further spreading of the warts. The wart will either get larger or more numerous.

The HPV virus is very resilient and multiple destructive modalities are usually needed to remove warts. My typical treatment plan involves shaving down the dead skin of a wart with a double edged razor blade. This is usually painless as the wart produces an overlying callused type of skin.

Don't rub, scratch, or pick at the wart becaue this could spread the virus to another part of the body or cause the wart to get infected.

Vinegar is an acetic acid, which means it can kill certain types of bacteria and viruses upon contact. Vinegar burns and gradually destroys the infected skin, making the wart fall off eventually, like the way salicylic acid works.

Should I dig my wart out? ›

Warts are more than skin deep

Some warts penetrate so deeply into your dermis that you can't cut or burn them off, no matter how far you dig or burn. The only way to remove them is through professional methods, such as lasers, that penetrate the skin and target warts at their source.

Discourage your child from picking at the wart. Picking it and scratching a new area with the same finger can spread warts. A new wart can form in 1 to 2 months. Chewing or sucking on them can lead to similar warts on the face.

With repeated application, salicylic acid causes the wart tissue to become soft so that it can be rubbed off easily. Remove dead tissue daily or once or twice a week. Carefully use a file or as instructed on the medicine package. Dead tissue contains living wart virus, so dispose of the dead skin carefully.

Common warts tend to cause no discomfort unless they are in areas of repeated friction or pressure. Warts often go away on their own within two years. This person has a wart (verruca) that has built up a cutaneous horn which is made up of hard keratin. This does not slough-off like normal skin cells. A common wart.

Below the surface of the skin, the virus will infect the skin cells, leading to the creation of a wart at the surface. This is why when one removes or pulls a wart out, it typically leaves a large hole in the skin. They can be rather deep depending on how severe the skin infection is.

Cryotherapy. Cryotherapy uses liquid nitrogen to freeze and destroy a wart. Research has shown cryotherapy effectively removes warts in 50–70% of cases after 3–4 treatments. Cryotherapy may remove warts more quickly than salicylic acid.

Thin down the wart with a pumice stone or nail file. File the area until all the white, dead skin is removed without causing discomfort or pain. Make sure not to share pumice stones or nail files because the wart virus can be transmitted on these. Sometimes soaking the wart in warm water helps to soften the wart.

When you shave, you create microtears in your skin. If you shave over a wart, you'll have microtears in your wart and the skin that you shave. Through these microtears, you can spread the virus that causes warts from the wart to any skin that you shave.

Do not try to pick, cut or grind the wart away. Doing so can cause other warts to appear elsewhere on your foot or fingers.

“Viruses like to infect through cuts in the skin,” says Yale Medicine dermatologist Christopher Bunick, MD, PhD. “Picking of the warts (or biting them) can lead to spread of the virus, including around the mouths of kids.” Two common locations for warts in both kids and adults are the hands and feet.