Chicago Plastic Surgeons

March 30, 2006 11:36 PM

Does anyone know a good plastic surgeon in Chicago?

My girlfriend is a fetish model in Chicago and she makes a large percentage of her money with her feet. Recently she developed a wart on her foot that just won't go away with over the counter treatment. This has completely shut off a good portion of her income. She needs to have it removed with no scaring and quick turn around time. Unfortunately she just moved to Chicago a little over a year ago and thus she has no idea which plastic surgeons are good and which ones are not. Does anyone know who could do this in Chicago?

posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I'd ask about having it off with liquid nitrogen. It might take an extra trip, but I wouldn't think it would scar. (Sometime warts come back no matter how they are removed, my dermatologist says.) I've had several that way and they never left a mark. I used to do it myself when I had LN2 handy. If you don't get it all, I would think you could reburn it in a week or so. Not instant, but faster than waiting for a cut to heal, and really not uncomfortable.

One year I got over 300 on the bottom of a foot, and when they decided to give up, the mess just peeled off in sheets, and still didn't scar. (In those days they cut them off, and they said it was too big to cut out, so just had to wait.)

IANAD, YWartMV
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:12 AM on March 31, 2006

I second the dermatologist recommendation: they probably see quite a few warts every day.
posted by penchant at 8:13 AM on March 31, 2006

Also, she'd probably be able to see a dermatologist sooner than a plastic surgeon, and they might be able to treat the wart in the first visit. Some warts require multiple treatments, though.

Has she tried duct tape? I've never had a wart, but I hear it works sometimes...
posted by penchant at 8:24 AM on March 31, 2006

Yeah, I'd say check out a dermatologist first. Asside from being a lot cheaper, they'll be more used to dealing with this sort of thing.

_{(is anyone else reminded of the episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza was a hand model?)}
posted by delmoi at 8:26 AM on March 31, 2006

Get her to a dermatologist and ask for Canthacur--it's a medication that literally blisters the wart right off. It leaves nice clean smooth skin underneath. It's not permitted by the FDA in the US, but it's available in Canada and I had it applied to a wart on my foot in a dermatologist's office in Georgia. It is neat stuff.
posted by FergieBelle at 9:57 AM on March 31, 2006

On reflection, I'd try the duct tape first. I have seen doctors recommending it (on the 'net, so take that for what it's worth), and I actually did that to my last wart. It happened to be a very small one, I put the tape on about a week, and then gave up because it kept falling off. (Hand) About a week after that, I just looked and it was gone.

My experience with the stuff that chemically burns off warts was that it broke down the tissues, released the virus, and one turned into a whole litter of them around the original problem.

YWMV.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 8:04 AM on April 1, 2006