3 Facts on Plantar Warts [and 1 EASIER Way to Get Rid of Them!]

Feb 12, 2021

Foot warts tend to creep up on you from out of nowhere. Everything seems perfectly fine until you notice rough, grainy patches and bumps on the bottom of your foot. If your child has them, they might have come up to ask you what they were or have been trying to hide them from you.

Either way, surprise!

To understand the best way of treating foot warts (also known as plantar warts), it helps to know exactly what you’re dealing with. Once we do that, we’ll tell you all about a new treatment that is the best way of getting rid of plantar warts we have ever used.

So here’s what you should know!

Plantar Warts are Caused by a Virus

More specifically, they are caused by strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.

The virus invades the skin through cracks, splits, or other weaknesses. Once inside, it hunkers down and protects itself. That is where those bumps and lesions come from.

The virus responsible for plantar warts does not tend to be extremely contagious, but it can still be transmitted from person to person. A common way to pick it up is walking barefoot through warm, damp, high-traffic areas such as locker rooms and public showers. (That is why we often recommend investing in a good pair of shower shoes if you find yourself in these places a lot. Wear a pair of flip-flops at the very least!)

Children and elders tend to be more prone to plantar warts because their immune systems are more often not as well equipped to eradicate the virus when they see it.

But speaking of that…

Plantar Warts are Stubborn Because they Hide Out

Why are plantar warts so difficult to get rid of? Because they camp out where our immune systems don’t tend to patrol very actively.

When the virus makes its home within the skin, it is only within the first few layers. This keeps it far enough away from “critical systems” that it may go undetected by the immune system.

This is a big reason why so many of the old treatments for plantar warts – cutting, burning, freezing, etc. – have attacked the virus from the outside. There just hasn’t been much backup internally.

Plantar Warts May Eventually Go Away on Their Own

But you can expect to wait quite a long time for them to do so!

Eventually, the virus will typically die out and warts will disappear, but it may take a year or even longer for that to happen. In the meantime, while the virus is still active, it can be capable of spreading further across your skin, or to the skin of other people.

This natural resolution is one of the factors that keep “home remedies” for warts so prevalent. When people try a variety of methods over time and the warts start to go away, it can be natural to assume the most recently attempted home remedy had something to do with it. But actually, the warts were probably just starting to die off on their own.

If you’re looking for a plantar wart treatment, though, you want something that will start giving you results much sooner – and preferably not at the expense of your comfort.

That’s why we are thrilled to provide Swift Therapy to our patients!

Swift Therapy – A Better Way of Treating Plantar Warts

Swift eclipses the more traditional methods of professional plantar wart treatment that patients have come to know (and fear), and for one simple reason: it actually works from the inside instead of attacking from the outside!

Remember earlier when we said the immune system has trouble detecting the wart-causing virus because of its location? Swift addresses this problem by using microwave energy to cause a minor disruption in the area of the warts. The immune system responds to this strange occurrence, where it will find the virus and attack it for the invader that it is.

It is true that the old methods of plantar wart treatment also cause disturbances that your immune system will respond to, but they are much more painful and damaging to healthy skin in the process. Swift, on the other hand, causes minor discomfort for 2-3 seconds every time the microwave energy is applied – and the pain goes away as soon as the application stops!

We schedule several Swift sessions over a few months, but many patients report seeing a significant improvement in the size and appearance of their warts after the first treatment. Each session lasts only about 15 minutes, and you will have no pain or aftercare to worry about once you’re done.

And as an added benefit, since your immune system is front and center in the treatment, it is much more likely to identify and attack the virus if it ever comes back. The likelihood of a return case of plantar warts is reduced!

The Cure is Finally Better than the Disease!

You no longer have to worry about the pain and mess of plantar wart treatment. Swift Therapy places those old methods of plantar wart treatment firmly in the past! It’s a more comfortable option for treating plantar warts than the traditional methods.

Don’t wait to receive the help you need. Schedule an appointment by filling out our online contact form or by calling either of our offices below: