Types of Warts and Cryotherapy Treatment For Warts

April 28, 2021     

A wart is defined as an abnormal growth of noncancerous tissue with a rough surface that occurs when your skin is infected with the viruses that belong to the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. There are more than 100 kinds of HPV virus that triggers extra cell growth. They turn the outer layer of your skin thick and hard where it occurs. Mostly warts occur on your hands or feet.

Warts are classified based on where it occurs and how it looks like. While warts are of different types, the type of warts mentioned below is most commonly seen.

Common warts

These types of warts are also called Verruca Vulgaris. Such warts usually develop on your fingers and toes(cuticle and beneath the nail) but can appear anywhere on your body. Nail-biting can spread the infection to other areas of the body. They tend to have a rough, grainy surface with a round top and might appear like cauliflower.

Plantar warts

Plantar warts commonly develop on the soles of your feet. Unlike other kinds of warts, these warts grow deep into your skin. A plantar wart can be diagnosed easily; they appear to have a small black dot surrounded by hardened white skin in the bottom of your foot. Plantar warts mostly occur when heavyweight people and also make walking uncomfortable.

Genital warts

A few HPV viruses cause warts on, in, and surrounding your genitals, i.e., in the pubic area, around your anus, in the vagina, etc. They seem to be small flesh-coloured, pink, or red tissue growths. These resemble a small part of a cauliflower, or sometimes they grow very tiny and hard to notice. Often, they develop in groups and may spread rapidly. Usually, they are painless, but they might cause bleeding and mild pain and itching in some people. In women, genital warts might lead to cervical cancer if left untreated.

Flat warts

Usually, this kind of wart grows on your face, thighs, or arms. Flat warts are small hard to notice. The top of flat warts appears to be flat as if they have been scrapped. They may grow in different colours like pink, brown, or pale yellow.

Filiform warts

Warts that grow around your mouth, eyes, or nose are mostly Filiform warts. Sometimes they may also grow on your neck or blow your chin. They look like a tiny flap or spiky tag on your skin. The colour of these warts is the same as your skin.

Periungual warts

Periungual warts mostly grow around your fingernails or toenails. They tend to look like a thick, fissured cauliflower around your nail plate. These warts often damage the cuticle and paronychia. Nail-biting spreads these warts fastly.

Treatment For Warts In Hyderabad

Warts on the skin cause no harm for most people. They often disappear with time without treatment. But genital warts are complicated and should be evaluated by the doctor. There are different types of treatment available to treat warts.

Warts might reappear even after treatment in some people. So they require more than one type of treatment. Though dermatologists or physicians clear warts quickly, some treatment methods require multiple sessions to reduce the recurrence rate. The common treatments for warts include:

Cryotherapy For Warts

Cryotherapy is the latest technique that is very effective in treating warts, especially common warts that are difficult to treat. Cryotherapy is also called Freezing therapy, where liquid nitrogen is used to treat warts by freezing them. The temperatures of liquid nitrogen to freeze off the wart will be as low as -320 F.

Before starting cryotherapy, a dermatologist will trim warts, and liquid nitrogen is applied either with a cotton swab and spray gun “cryogen” to freeze the wart. The treatment might be slightly painful, so local anaesthesia is also given during the treatment. After the treatment, a blister is formed surrounding the wart, and within one or two weeks, the dead tissue falls off. Some warts might require 1 to 4 treatment sessions, with a time gap of 1 to 3 weeks for every session.

Cryotherapy can also be done at home. But we recommend getting cryotherapy by expert dermatologists in a clinic because this treatment at home might not freeze warts deep enough to be effective. You should follow the instructions carefully while performing cryotherapy on wars because improper application of this procedure might result in severe burns and permanent scarring.

Sometimes, cryotherapy is performed in combination with other treatments for warts. To know more information about warts treatment, consult Dr Swapna Priya, Consultant Dermatologist for warts treatment at Cosmosure Clinic. She has more than 12 years of experience in treating warts and various other skin conditions.