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You can get warts anywhere — they commonly occur on your face, hands, feet, and sometimes genitals. The good news is that warts are usually harmless.

However, that doesn’t mean you want warts. Here’s what you need to know about treating this common skin problem.

What Are Warts?

Warts are skin growths caused by viral infections. They often happen in places where you have a cut or tear in the skin. That’s why people who bite their fingernails or pick at hangnails might get warts on their fingers and hands.

There are different kinds of warts. They don’t all look the same.

Some warts are rough, flesh-colored bumps on your hands or fingers. Other warts are flat and occur in clusters. These warts often grow in places where you shave, like the beard area in men or the legs in women.

Plantar warts grow on the bottoms of your feet. Genital warts grow on or near the penis or vagina. Genital warts are considered a sexually transmitted infection.

What Causes Warts?

Several viruses from the human papillomavirus (HPV) family cause warts. Different types of HPV can cause warts to grow in different parts of your body. Other strains of HPV can cause more serious problems, including cervical, penile, or head and neck cancer.

Warts are contagious. The viruses that cause them can pass easily from person to person by touching. You can also get warts from touching an object that someone with a wart has touched, like a towel or washcloth.

How to Treat Warts

Warts often disappear on their own, especially if you have a healthy immune system. Warts in children tend to fade more quickly than warts in adults. It may take months for a wart to disappear completely.

There are folk remedies for how to get rid of warts. Some people cover a wart with duct tape, changing it every few days to peel away layers of the wart. While it can’t harm you, this method isn’t scientifically proven.

Home treatment for warts

Home treatment for warts consists of over-the-counter solutions that contain salicylic acid. One brand name is Compound W. These medicines come in liquid, gel, and patch forms.

You apply the solution to the wart daily, directly after showering or bathing. It may take weeks for the wart to disappear.

Doctors’ treatment for warts

Doctors have treatments to remove warts that don’t respond to home treatment. You can see your primary care doctor or a dermatologist for wart removal.

First, your doctor will diagnose the wart by looking at it. Some callouses and other skin growths look like warts.

Some types of skin cancer even look like warts. In rare cases, your doctor may perform a skin biopsy to rule out cancer.

To remove a wart, your doctor may suggest one of these treatments:

• Cantharidin. The doctor paints a solution on the wart, which causes a blister to form under it. The blister lifts the wart from the skin and cuts off its blood supply. In about a week, the doctor can clip off the dead wart.
• Cryosurgery. Freezing the wart to remove it. This method may require multiple treatments.
• Electrosurgery and curettage. This method involves burning the wart and then scraping it off.
• Excision. Surgery to cut out the wart.
• Laser surgery. An intense light beam destroys the wart tissue. They will numb the area before laser treatment.
• Chemical peel. Your doctor may prescribe a chemical stronger than over-the-counter treatments for clusters of warts. These medicines include prescription-strength salicylic acid, tretinoin, and glycolic acid. You’ll apply for the drug every day at home.
• Immunotherapy. Using your immune system to fight the virus that causes warts. Your doctor will apply a chemical to the wart to trigger a mild allergic reaction on the skin. This allergic reaction may help get rid of the wart.

Can You Prevent Warts?

It’s impossible to prevent warts completely, but there are some steps you can take to reduce the risk of getting warts. Because warts spread easily among people living in the same house, all family members should follow these dos and don’ts.

Do:

• Clean and cover all cuts and scrapes. Covering a wound will help it heal. It will also help prevent HPV from entering your body and causing a wart to form.
• Cover the wart itself. Covering the wart will help prevent the virus from spreading to other people and different parts of your body.
• Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently. HPV lives in cells on the skin’s surface. Washing your hands helps reduce the amount of virus on your skin.
• Moisturize, especially in the winter. HPV can get through a crack in your skin and cause a wart. Ward off cracked, dry skin with a good quality moisturizer.
• Cover your feet in public areas. Wear flip-flops or shower shoes around the pool, shared showers, and locker rooms. HPV thrives in warm, moist areas and can cause plantar warts to form on your feet.
• Talk to your doctor about getting the HPV vaccine for you and your children. It can help prevent some strains of HPV that cause warts.

Don’t:

• Touch someone else’s wart. HPV can easily spread to your skin and get into your body through a tiny cut or scrape.
• Share personal items. This includes towels, washcloths, nail clippers, razors, tweezers, combs, and clothing. Having separate hygiene items and clothing for each person in the house will help prevent viruses from spreading.
• Bite or pick at your nails. These habits create tiny openings in your skin. HPV can get into your body through these openings and cause warts to form.
• Shave over a wart. You can create tiny tears in the wart and the skin around it. Those tears may allow HPV to spread, creating more warts in the area.

Following these tips will help keeps warts to a minimum. And, of course, contact your doctor anytime you’re not sure about a growth on your skin.