If you've ever had any experience at all with wart removal, plantar warts take the matter to an entirely different level. If you've specifically dealt with planter warts, then you know what I mean. If you haven't, then I assure you this is an entirely different ball of wax. It can take literally weeks of determined commitment and religious treatment.
For starters, as for wart removal, planter warts ought not to be much different. They are simply growths that typically pop up on the bottom of your feet. So far, that's not much different that any other wart out there. These are usually caused by the HPV, or human papillomavirus. What happens is that the virus is able to gain access to the body by way of any little cut or abrasion in the skin. The next thing you know, when the last thing you were contemplating was wart removal, plantar warts have made an appearance.
When speaking in general about wart removal, planter warts offer a few options. First of all, let's note that they are not necessarily an independent health risk. Further, it's possible that they might go away on their own. At the same time, I've seen them stick around for a long, long time and be determined to thwart your treatment efforts. Ultimately, you want to get some sort of treatment to east the pain that can result from walking on it. Plus, you also want to be able to prevent the spread of the warts.
For more aggressive modes of wart removal, plantar warts can be treated with cryotherapy. This involves using nitrogen to freeze the wart. The nitrogen is generally applied by way of a spray gun or else a cotton swab. Once the nitrogen hits the wart, it tends to blister. The dead skin will fall away in a week or two. Sometimes, however, you have to repeat the treatment for complete wart removal; planter warts can grow quite deep. The nice thing about cryotherapy is that it doesn't really hurt.
As for other methods of wart removal, planter warts respond to cantharidin. This is an interesting treatment that relies on a substance found in blister beetles. It's merged with salicylic acid and then put on the plantar wart. You then simply cover it up with a bandage. Although the process of applying the mixture does not really hurt, it crates a blister that can be a nuisance. Your doctor can then cut away the dead tissue that results.
There are still other options for wart removal; plantar warts have been successfully treated with lasers. Of course, laser therapy can be more expensive than other methods and may not be covered by insurance. It can also require several treatments before a complete remedy has been obtained. Because of the expense and seemingly drastic nature of this approach, it is often used as a final line of defense.
A newer treatment modality is immunotherapy. With this, the natural healing tendency of the body is capitalized on to ward off the wart. In one method, the doctor would inject the planter wart with interferon. This would increase the immune system's likelihood of aggressively rejecting the wart on the body. A different approach would be to heighten the immune response by injecting the wart with an antigen. Something like the mump antigen could be used where the person is already immunized against mumps. The ensuing immune reaction fights off the plantar wart.
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