Plantar Warts Health Video

Remedies for plantar warts can be found in your local pharmacy and are generally effective. Learn about plantar warts from a doctor in this video on skin treatments.

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Ask a pharmacist for a home remedy plaster
Consult a doctor if warts persist or bleed

About this Author

Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, the author of the book Six Weeks to Sensational Skin, is a board certified dermatologist who has made numerous appearances on television shows such as Good Morning America. She holds a degree from Hunter College in New York, an M.D. from Downstate University at SUNY, and did her residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Ciraldo has been a board-certified dermatologist since 1982, and is currently a voluntary professor at the University of Miami, where she runs a clinic in cosmetic dermatology.

DR. LORETTA CIRALDO: Hi, I'm Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, a board-certified Miami dermatologist for nearly 30 years and author of "6 Weeks to Sensational Skin." Now, the term plantar wart refers to a wart that appears on the plantar surface of the foot and that's our medical term for the sole of the foot. Plantar warts are sometimes a little bit more difficult to treat than warts that appear on other areas of skin, and that's because a plantar wart tends to grow almost like an ice cream cone; so that you may see if I use my palm like to describe what you would see on the sole of the foot, you may see a little bump on your sole but you have to remember that typically that bump has a very deep-seated root that's kind of bored its way in as you're walking over a period of time on that wart. So if you're someone who has a plantar wart, from the bottom of my heart, I recommend that you try to treat it by first seeing your pharmacist and asking for a home remedy which is called 40% salicylic acid plaster. This is most often kept behind the pharmacy counter, but it's not a prescription item. If you have a lesion that you think is a wart and you asked the pharmacist for the plaster, you can cut the plaster just to the size of the wart, put tape over it and try to keep that tape on, preferably waterproof tape, for a number of days before you pull it off. When you pull off the plaster, you should see some of that wart coming with it; and over the period of about a month, you may be able to really get rid a lot of the root of the wart. This is my favorite way to treat a plantar wart because it's painless. If we physicians try to go in to remove plantar warts, we can sometimes produce painful scar tissues, so try the paster first and best of luck.

Plantar Warts Health Video

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