Looking for a last ditch plan for getting rid of these warts - before I make the doctor's appointment...

January 22, 2007 9:36 AM

Looking for a last ditch plan for getting rid of these warts - before I make the doctor's appointment...

I have several warts on my left hand. The oldest, a 1/4 incher on my middle finger (around 2 years old), the second, a slightly smaller one on my ring finger, and 2 small ones on my pointer finger.

I know about duct tape, I've tried it and it simply does not stay in place on a finger.

Dr Scholl's Freeze Away DOES NOT WORK and is a huge rip off at $20. It actually made the ring finger wart BIGGER.

I have spent the last many months using salicilic acid products, re-applying several times a day and covering with a band-aid. I 've tried filing them down daily, and soaking in water for 5 minutes before applying. I have scraped, peeled and cut them off but they always come back.

Has anyone successfully defeated a wart that is this persistant? Is the doctor's liquid nitro my only option at this point?

posted by bradn to Health & Fitness (26 answers total)

I'm not sure what the Dr Scholl's product does, but I've used Wartner Plantar with success.
posted by loiseau at 9:48 AM on January 22, 2007

as a kid I had one on my calf that would not go away. The doc used the liquid nitrogen and it was icky but it has never returned (over 25 years).
posted by nimsey lou at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2007

I had a long-lived wart on my index finger, palm side, just past the final joint/crease. After lots of salicylic acid and freeze attempts, I went to the doctor...who just used a different commercial freeze product and also failed to kill the wart.

I eventually got it through persistence of my own: burn all the way down with salicylic acid, cut off dead skin and keep applying acid even though it stings. Then, when you've got it on the ropes, use one of the freeze-away kits. Might as well get the 10 or 20-application one, because you have to keep doing it.

IANAD. Please don't get gangrene and die.
posted by spacewrench at 10:03 AM on January 22, 2007

Warts are persistent, and frequently take repeated applications of even doc administered liquid nitrogen to remove completely.

You might keep in mind that when you pick at a wart, or do anything that spreads little wart particles around on your skin, you are spreading the virus that causes the wart. You can easily turn one wart into a bunch this way.
posted by OmieWise at 10:06 AM on January 22, 2007

You might want to try duct tape.
posted by TedW at 10:31 AM on January 22, 2007

I had one on the heel of my foot for weeks, and no matter what I did, it never went away. Although I was clumsy and kept hitting it, which probably never made it any better. I really suggest you just get it frozen off at the doctor's appointment. It isn't that painful and it goes away pretty darn fast. I wish I had just done it earlier.
posted by slc228 at 10:31 AM on January 22, 2007

OOPs, missed that part of the question. please ignore me.
posted by TedW at 10:32 AM on January 22, 2007

I had a few fairly big ones on my foot, and had to resort to two types of treatment.

First, the doctor cut away the dead tissue on top of the wart before holding a swab soaked with liquid nitrogen to it. If you are using OTC liquid nitrogen it's possible that you are just not getting deep enough. I don't think I could do effective liquid nitrogen on myself because it smarts like heck. I don't think I could really effectively scrape my own warts either.

For what it's worth, I was told that nitrogen doesn't kill the wart, it just irritates the tissue enough to trigger an inflammation response during which the immune system will hopefully get rid of any damaged and abnormal cells.

After a few months of that, she prescribed a topical anti-viral that was normally listed for venereal warts but not fully tested for plantar warts. That cured the whole thing up after two more liquid nitrogen treatments. This was about 5 years ago so I have no hope of remembering the clinical name.

I'd say that a visit to a doctor would be worthwhile at this point.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 10:37 AM on January 22, 2007

Doctor-administered nitro never worked for my wart. Salicylic acid didn't really work either. The only thing that got rid of my wart was accidental second degree burns to the area.

For the duct tape method, try cutting out a circle of duct tape the size of the wart (because the duct tape will kill non-warty skin, too), and then using gauze and medical tape to affix it to the skin. This should help keep it on, but you'll look like a weirdo for a while.
posted by muddgirl at 10:38 AM on January 22, 2007

Why would you not go to the doctor at this point? I do recall (this was years and years ago, and I never go to the Dr.) that, as spacewrench suggests, a certain amount of pain and blood was ultimately involved in getting deep enough with the salicilic to conquer the most persistent growths. Going at it with the OTC one more time at the worst will work you down a few layers of derma which ought to make the Dr's treatment more effective.
posted by nanojath at 10:39 AM on January 22, 2007

but you'll look like a weirdo for a while.

No, man, you'll look like Charlie from Lost!
posted by nanojath at 10:41 AM on January 22, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for all the help. I think I'll burn the big one down with the salicilic acid one more time and give dr. scholl's one more chance, just because i don't have time for a doctor's appointment right now. After that, it's nitro time.
posted by bradn at 11:06 AM on January 22, 2007

I had some strange persistent warts (diagnosed as verrucae, but which I had contracted from someone who had just come back from a wildlife viewing trip to Africa) which had spread to all my cuticles and had resisted two liquid nitrogen treatments. I went to a new doctor who applied Cantharidin (that's right, Spanish fly). My fingertips swelled til they looked like red grapes and were shockingly painful, but the warts were destroyed, and peeling away the old dead tissue was one of the most startling and deep satisfactions I've ever experienced. I ended up thinking the Cantharidin succeeded where liquid nitrogen had failed because it also stimulated my immune system.
posted by jamjam at 11:06 AM on January 22, 2007

Response by poster: any comments on favorite salicylic acid treatment? I've been using Dr. Scholl's gel and WartStick.
posted by bradn at 11:10 AM on January 22, 2007

Banana peel worked for some plantar warts I had on my toes. It was really convenient - eat a banana for breakfast, smear the peel on my foot, cover with a band-aid, and do the same the next day. Took a couple weeks, though, and the whold damn mass fell out of my toe.
posted by notsnot at 11:30 AM on January 22, 2007

Response by poster: notsnot, AWESOME link, thank you. I begin my banana peel regimen tonight, and I will report the results here.
posted by bradn at 11:55 AM on January 22, 2007

My daughter had many warts (nearly 40) on her hands for years. The dermatologist prescribed a cream that is actually for genital warts, which still did not clear them up. Her pediatrician, surprisingly, suggested a combination of Tagamet (taken orally) and Compound W (applied to the wart). Within about six weeks, they were all gone. Tagamet seems to work better in children than adults.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 12:58 PM on January 22, 2007

Sweetie Darling must be talking about the topical immune response cream, Aldara, also known by it's generic name, Imiquimod.

A doctor gave it to me for a wart I had under my fingernail which no amount of slicing off of freezing would get rid of. It worked for me and I would recommend at least asking your doctor about it. Most removal treatments are extremely painful especially if the wart is located on your fingertip or under your nail! Rubbing on the immune cream made it just shrink and disappear. I was amazed. Several years later, my grandmother was given the same type of cream for skin cancer on her face which was caused by ultra-violet acne treatments she received as a teenager.
posted by bobobox at 1:17 PM on January 22, 2007

Yes, bobobox, it was Aldara - couldn't remember the name but recognize it now. It was very expensive, IIRC.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 1:31 PM on January 22, 2007

A roommate applied fresh, mashed garlic to her plantar warts 2x daily, and held in place w/ a dressing for overnight. It stuck in my memory because @ 10 minutes after applying garlic to her foot, she could taste the garlic. It killed the warts. and probably her social life for a few weeks.
posted by theora55 at 2:27 PM on January 22, 2007

This is gonna sound gross, but I had exactly 3 warts when I was a little kid, and they were very resistant to most of the above treatments (didn't try the Spanish Fly!). I'm not saying I recommended this, but I chewed the little bastards off, way down into my palm to the core. They never came back.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 4:25 PM on January 22, 2007

I tried a bunch of home and herbal remedies with no success, then bought a tiny bottle of 100% Tea Tree Oil, and doused my warts with it (pressed wart over the bottle opening like a stopper, upended bottle) rubbing it in for a minute or two, then cleaning up around each wart with a Q-Tip. The warts started disintegrating with a few days. Totally destroyed them within 2 weeks, no spreading, no recurrence after 3 months. Used about 1/25th of the bottle.
posted by dpcoffin at 7:07 PM on January 22, 2007

More, possibly consequential, Tea Tree info: Applied 1 or 2 times daily, right before sleeping or after washing, so oil stayed on wart as long as possible, not washed off.
posted by dpcoffin at 7:42 PM on January 22, 2007

I had a similar experience to M.C. Lo-Carb.

I don't actually recommend you do this, but it worked for me.

I had a huge wart on my knee that would NOT go away. I tried salicylic acid, freezing, duct tape, garlic, etc. Finally I just bit down on a rag and pulled the sucker off. I wedged my fingernail under one side and tore it off. It bled a lot, but it never came back. Surprisingly, the pain wasn't all that bad. It stopped almost immediately after the wart came off.

I did this because last time I went to the doctor he did the same thing with a scraper. Essentially, I saved $30 by not getting anesthesia.
posted by flyingcowofdoom at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2007

I had a wart on my foot as a teenager which I defeated by scraping it down and applying vitamin E oil onto it. But the method I would endorse now is the one I used to get rid of several warts I developed on my fingers in my twenties: Aloe Vera. Before I went to bed, I would take a portion of a cotton ball, loosen up the fibers and work a bunch of aloe vera into it to make a big glob, then place the glob on the wart and hold it in place with strategically placed tape...and go to bed. I was surprised, but this worked every time. I think it took about a week or so for each wart to go away.
posted by keith0718 at 12:14 AM on January 24, 2007

Response by poster: For anyone whose still watching, I tried the banana peel method for a few weeks and didn't see much of a change. The warts would be white and ugly in the morning, and I'm not sure if that was from the banana peel or just the moisture. After drying they looked pretty much the same. I bought some DR. Scholl's Salicylic acid pads (actually sold as corn removers) and got the warts down to a much smaller size. I have run out of those, but I am keeping them covered with either duct tape or banana peel at night and most of the day to keep them from regenerating. My next trick will probably be the aloe or tea tree oil. As a side note, the band-aids that Big Lots sells 50 for $1 are surprisingly nicer than Band-Aid brand.
posted by bradn at 12:12 PM on February 21, 2007