Hand and face warts

 Warts on hands and warts on the face are part of the human papillomavirus (HPV). To many people, warts are embarrassing as many cultures see them as a sign of uncleanliness. Practically everyone will develop at least one wart during their lifetime. Usually they are perfectly harmless and they will go away with time and treatment.

Warts on hands are commonly developed during childhood. They tend to look like a pimple that continues to grow into a large raised bump. When you cut the wart, you may be able to see the blood capillaries inside it they appear as small black dots. Warts on hands normally are single. Warts on the face will develop as clusters. On males, warts on the face tend to develop around their neck and beard area. On females, the warts may appear on the forehead, cheeks, and commonly on their legs.

What can you do about warts?
There are several over-the-counter remedies you can use to treat warts. Many people have found the simply doing nothing will eventually make the wart go away. If you can handle looking at the wart and not being embarrassed about it, this method may work for you. Normally the body will get rid of the wart within 2 years of recognizing it however it may take longer. When you leave the wart alone, you will not get a scar like you will with other treatment options.

Over-the-counter medicines like wart paint can help to kill the wart. Be careful when using the paint as it can strip your furniture and carpet and ruin its appearance. You can only use wart paint on the hands so some home remedies are the way to treat warts on the face. Wart paints have a salicylic acid which helps to kill the wart. It will remove the wart tissue, allowing your immune system to attack the wart. Use an emery board to remove the dead wart tissue. Patients that use wart paint see a 75% success rate.

 Since warts thrive on oxygen, you can kill them by starving them of oxygen. Many people use duct tape to cover their warts. The duct tape needs to remain on the wart for 6 days in order for it to be effective. After 6 days, remove the tape and use nail clippers to remove the dead skin on the top layer or use an emery board to get rid of the dead skin. Re-apply some duct tape to the wart for 6 more days and continue this process for 2 months.

There are some other remedies you can try like squeezing lemon juice, dandelion sap, and raw meat onto the wart. All of these home remedies have been helpful for some people and they notice the wart is gone within 6 weeks.

Freezing aerosol is another popular way to remove warts. You must set up an appointment with your doctor in order to receive a treatment. They will essentially "burn" the wart off your hands. It is too dangerous to use on your face unless the doctor feels comfortable doing so. Several pharmacies will sell freezing aerosol but it is not as effective as the liquid nitrogen used by medical doctors. Once the treatment is over and the skin heals, you may have a white patch where the wart used to be.

A new way to get rid of warts includes laser treatments. Similar to freezing, it will burn off the wart. The blood vessels in the wart are killed by the laser, causing the wart to die and fall off naturally. Patients of laser treatments are typically satisfied with the results even if they do have a white patch where the skin has healed from the wart.