FAQs About Warts
What are warts?
How do you recognize a wart?
What causes warts?
Who gets warts?
How are warts treated?
Can warts be prevented?
What are warts?
A wart is a skin growth caused by a virus on the surface of the skin. It can be unsightly and sometimes painful. While warts can occur anywhere on the body, they are most common on the hands (known as common warts) or the feet (known as plantar warts).
How do you recognize a wart?
Warts can occur in a variety of shapes and sizes. A wart may appear as a bump with a rough surface, or it may be flat and smooth. Tiny blood vessels grow into the wart and may appear as dark dots in the center. Typically, the skin lines and creases over the wart are distorted. Warts can appear either alone or in groups.
Common warts appear most often on the hands and can be easily recognized by the rough, cauliflower-like appearance of the surface. They are usually less than a half-inch across.
Plantar warts are located on the bottom of the foot. They look like hard, thick patches of skin with dark specks. Plantar warts can be as large as 2 inches across but are typically about the size of a pencil eraser. Plantar warts can be very painful.
What causes warts?
Warts are caused by a virus, which can enter the skin through a cut or abrasion. The virus causes the top layer of skin to grow rapidly, resulting in a wart.
Warts are contagious and can be easily spread through direct contact. You can reinfect yourself by touching the wart and then another part of your body, and you can infect others by sharing personal items such as towels and razors.
Who gets warts?
Children and young adults are most susceptible to warts, but millions of men and women of all ages get them each year.
How are warts treated?
Warts can be removed at home by using a nonprescription product such as salicylic acid or freezing the wart (cryotherapy). They can also be surgically removed by a doctor.
Dr. Scholl's, the leader in over-the-counter (OTC) wart treatments, offers two lines of products that safely* and effectively remove warts.
Dr. Scholl's® Freeze Away® Products—This innovative line of Dr. Scholl's® wart removal products enables you to safely and effectively remove warts at home with a method (cryotherapy) used by doctors!* Dr. Scholl's® Freeze Away® is an advanced and fast treatment for common and plantar warts. Learn more about Dr. Scholl's® Freeze Away® products>>
Dr. Scholl's® Clear Away® Products—The five products in this line of Dr. Scholl's® wart removers rely on salicylic acid to soften the skin layers that form a wart. Following treatment, the wart either falls off or can be easily rubbed off with a moist cloth.
Dr. Scholl's® Clear Away® comes in five varieties to meet all the unique needs of wart sufferers. Learn more about Dr. Scholl's® Clear Away® products >>
Can warts be prevented?
The only way to prevent warts is to avoid contact with the virus that causes warts. However, good hygiene and proper treatment of cuts can help limit warts from developing.
You can keep warts from spreading by covering them with a bandage.
