If you are burdened by the embarrassment of a common wart on your hand, then this information will give you basic steps on how to help get rid of it. Warts are frustrating as they are difficult to treat and do not have a definite cure. But this basic knowledge and these helpful hints will allow for quicker disappearance.
Soak and scrape the wart before using the following treatments, to allow better and deeper penetration of medications/treatments. Irritating warts is good, it helps your immune system start to eject it.
Care should be taken with many of these treatments. If you are not sure about how to deal with warts, you have a severe infestation, or it's getting worse, please see a dermatologist.
Steps
Warm salt water and sea salt- Soak the wart for 10 to 15 minutes in warm salt water to moisten the skin.
- Scrape off the dead skin layers, as much as can be tolerated, off the wart. Scrapers can be a nail file, pumice stone (used for calluses), mild sandpaper, or a butter knife edge. Or, use fingers to pick at the wart, removing as much of the raised dead skin as possible, but wash fingers/hands thoroughly before and after, as warts can easily spread.
- After scratching the surface of the wart, select a large flake of rough sea salt with a flat surface. Moisten the wart and salt slightly, applying the salt flake to wart. Put a band-aid or tape over the wart to hold salt in place. Observe the salt several days, replacing it after you shower or if it falls off.
- Use salicylic acid, the ingredient of most wart removers, which is a blistering agent that aggravates warts. Any over-the-counter remedy with this is good when used as directed. Two great salicylic products for this are Compound W and Ocusal; soak the skin in water for 5 minutes or longer, apply the acid liberally using the brush, and let dry. Leave it for a day. You can either peel or file it off and then file remaining dead skin. If you are serious about removing the warts, do this regularly, about every 2-3 days.
- Freeze the wart with over the counter medications for this purpose. Used as directed, these are very effective.
- Try to burn it off. Be very careful not to burn too much skin. Light a wooden match, blow it out, while the match head is still hot, touch it to the wart. This is a mild blistering effect that initiates a healing response.
- If you're feeling brave, you can use an incense stick or cigarette but with these do NOT touch the wart, just hold the lit end close for as long as you can bear, then move it away to recover, and repeat a few times. You may need to re-treat after a couple of days, but this is a very effective method. Be careful not to touch the skin with the lit end though, this will cause unnecessary pain!
- Take garlic capsules (oderless brands!) twice a day for at least several weeks. Warts should start peeling off in one, two weeks, but take the garlic until the wart disappears. Warts are caused by a virus, and garlic seems to be a natural enemy of many viruses.
- Apply garlic oil on the wart. Cover the wart with garlic oil once or twice daily for 1 month.[1]
- Soak wart in hot water 'till it softens, scrape it down with a piece of coarse exfoliating pumice until you reach level with the skin. Take bleach on a cotton swab and hold it against the wart for 15 minutes (this may sting a bit). In most cases, that's enough but repeating this a couple times couldn't hurt. This is very quick and effective treatment but you MUST wash the area well after applying bleach.
- Create a preparation of curcumin extract (this comes from turmeric. It can be found at health stores.), papaya extract (Papain. It may have to be purchased in pill form and crushed into powder.), and vitamin E oil.
- Dab the wart and surrounding area with alcoholic extract of goldenseal, which will stimulate local immune activity.
- Take a sharp needle or pin, something very thin, and dip the pin into the curcumin paste. Press the needle as deep into the wart as possible, and continue injecting more of the paste into the wart, poking several holes if necessary.
- Spread the remaining paste over the wart area and cover with a lot of medical tape. This is because the paste will stain things neon yellow. Curcumin is anti-viral, and papaya has been shown to fight HPV. This technique is effective against flat warts, which are found on the hand. Flat warts are notoriously stubborn and will often remain on the skin after the body has acquired resistance to the virus. This will finish the warts off in lieu of freezing.
- Take a few aspirins and crunch them up, adding a few drops of water. Take the mixture and put it onto the effected wart areas and then put on a band-aid. Leave on overnight. Aspirin is the ingestable form of Salycilic Acid (most commercial wart treatments, see above), but much cheaper than most commercial lotions!
- Basil. Tape crushed, fresh basil to your wart using waterproof first-aid tape. Do this daily up to a week and the virus-killing compound in the basil leaf will kill your wart.
- Castor oil. Rubbing castor oil on your wart every day will break it down, possibly because the oil keeps the wart moist, causing the tough skin to just come apart.
- Tea tree oil. Dab a little on the wart and cover with a band aid. do this for up to three weeks.
- Get a bottle of apple cider vinegar from a local supermarket.
- Take a piece of cotton wool (only enough to cover the wart) and soak in ACV.
- Secure with a band aid overnight (do not fasten too tight). The ACV will attack the wart but not surrounding healthy skin. Warning - this can be really painful - the searing pain from the ACV can interrupt your sleep so prepare for some rough nights but it's worth it. If you can't keep the ACV pad on during the day just apply a normal band aid (you'll want to cover the wart as by now it will be swollen and a greenish, grey black colour.
- Change the ACV pad daily and keep it on every night if you can and after a week or so (only five days in my case) the body of the wart will start to come away and you can gently scrape it away to reveal healthy flesh beneath. This sounds like it should hurt but it doesn't.
- Leave the area to heal and inspect carefully to ensure that all traces of the wart have gone. If any remain, it will regrow so keep treating with ACV until it's completely gone. ACV works better than a charm: cheap, simple and quick - albeit with a degree of pain involved. Also reported to work on plantars although this is not confirmed.
- Pick a fresh dandelion. Break the stem.
- Apply the milky sap that oozes from the stem onto the wart. Repeat this 3 to 4 times a day.
- Continue doing this until the wart fades away.
- If all else fails, stop picking the wart. This can cause the virus to spread to other fingers. Try soaking it for a bit, keeping it moisturized and ignore it.
- They take a while to go away, but see your doctor if the problem persists for a long while without signs of improvement. They can provide you with immune system b
Tips
- You can apply several layers of Ocusal, but wait for the previous layer to dry first.
- Some people claim that using aloe vera gel will result in it falling off in about 1-2 days.
- Put a band-aid over the wart to help keep it from spreading.
- Dry the wart constantly. Wet warts tend to be easier to spread.
- Another great product is Mediplast by Curad, it is 40% salicylic acid on a cut to fit pad. Nothing else out there is strong enough to get rid of plantar warts. Also very cheap!
Warnings
- Do not use any of these treatments on irritated skin, on any area that is infected or reddened, on moles, on birthmarks, on warts with hair growing from them, on genital warts, on warts on the face, on warts on mucous membranes such as inside the mouth, nose, anus, genitals, or lips.
- Getting warts burned off hurts.
- Do not touch any warts on yourself or anyone else.
- Do not share socks, shoes, gloves, razors, or towels. Just because warts are not visible, the virus may still be present.
- Keep your warts covered with a bandage.
- Dry off your wart after washing your hands. Warts tend to be more contagious when wet, and by drying your hands you reduce the chance of spreading the virus to someone else.
- Getting warts froze really hurts.
Things You'll Need
- Sea salt
- Wart remover
- Duct tape
- Garlic capsules
- Banana peel
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Cotton wool
- Band Aids
- Cigarette or Incense (Joss) Stick