Plantar warts are warts growing on the sole of the foot. This area is known medically as the plantar area. Plantar warts can be caused by any of a number of common wart viruses, but they are all just warts and are treated using standard wart-removal techniques---including the duct tape remedy.
Getting Rid of Plantar Warts
Plantar warts hurt when you walk, run or stand on them. They are not pleasant. A 2002 study found duct tape removal methods to be more effective than cryotherapy. The methods are not particularly quick, and have reliability issues common to all wart removal. According to Pangaea Medicine no method is successful more than 73 percent of the time. The rest of the time, alternate therapies or repeated attempts with a first remedy must be attempted. But duct tape methods have been found to compare with other methods.
How Do I Use The Duct Tape?
Wash your foot, scrub away any dead skin over the wart with pumice stone and then dry the foot completely. Cut a piece of duct tape to cover the wart: the tape should not be more than an inch wider than the wart on any side. Press the duct tape down until it sticks firmly. Put on clean, dry socks.
Leave the tape on for a full week if possible. If the tape peels away on its own, repeat the application. Keep your foot dry and change your socks regularly, keeping your socks and shoes dry. At the end of the week remove the tape, take a long bath or shower, and use pumice to scrub away as many layers of dead wart skin as possible. Again dry your feet completely and cover the wart with duct tape. Leave it there for another week, wearing clean, dry socks and shoes. Repeat for at least the two full weeks. If you are making good progress, continue until the wart is gone. If you are not, consider another method.
If Duct Tape Fails
It can take several weeks or more to kill the germ carrying cells of the wart, if you succeed using the method. If the wart is deeply rooted, you may still need to use another method. There are over-the-counter chemically treated pads, over-the-counter freezing agents, and there are freezing and burning techniques a doctor can employ. The results of most wart removal methods are variable and plantar warts are often not removed on the first go-round. If the duct tape method fails you are likely to be no worse off than you started and you may have improved the situation enough for the next treatment to make even more headway.
Tags: duct tape, Plantar warts, another method, clean socks, common wart, cover wart