by You are trying to get rid of your warts, but they keep coming back. Your friend told you that you had to dig out the roots of your warts to keep them from growing. Another friend said those black dots were seeds and you were causing more warts to grow by spreading the seeds. Your warts hurt and they bleed every time you try to cut them off. You’re full of questions about what to try next. How do you get rid of the seeds? How deep do the roots grow? Keep reading. We have the facts here that you need to know for successful wart removal.
Table of Contents
Do My Warts Have Roots?
Your skin has three layers. These are the:
Epidermis, which is the first, or top, layer- Dermis, which is the second layer. It contains sweat glands and hair follicles.
- Subcutaneous, or hypodermis, which is the fat layer.
Epidermis, which is the first, or top, layerEach layer serves a protective function in keeping substances from getting into your body, as well as keeping everything that belongs inside your body where it’s supposed to be.
Warts consist of skin cells from your epidermis, or top layer of skin. Warts grow only from those epidermal cells. The cells in the dermis and subcutaneous layers do not ever become part of your wart.
Skin Is Everywhere
You might make you wonder why you can get warts in your mouth or your throat. That skin, even if you think of it as being “inside, ” is epidermal skin. The same is true of your genitals. It’s all skin on which a wart can grow.
As a wart grows, it pushes tissue upward and outward. This can make you think it’s growing from deeper layers of skin, but that’s not the case. The wart is formed only from the outer layer of skin.
A wart can push inward, but it is only pushing against the second and third layers of skin. It does not contain cells from those lower layers or grow into them, and a wart does not have roots that grow into any layer of your skin. Warts also do not penetrate bones.
Warts are a viral infection, caused by the human papilloma virus, better known as HPV. There’s more than a hundred types of HPV, each causing different kinds of infection. Only a few are responsible for warts.
Although all warts are HPV warts, each kind is caused by a different type of HPV. The different kinds of warts each have a preferred location on your body. However, they are all infectious and can spread elsewhere. They aren’t particular about where they invade.
I Think I Have Warts With Roots
Your skin has a wealth of nerves and blood vessels. Your warts are nourished by the same blood vessels that serve the rest of your skin. The little black dots that you might see in your warts are the ends of blood vessels. The dots are not seeds, and they do not cause new warts to grow.
When you dig out a wart, you usually get it out in pieces. You can also tear your skin. Both circumstances can result in pieces of tissue hanging from the wart or protruding from the hole where the wart was. Those pieces can look like roots.
Avoid DIY Surgery
It’s not a good idea to try to remove your warts by digging or cutting them out.
If you try, you can experience:
- Excessive bleeding,
- Extreme pain,
- Probable infection.
Your DIY efforts may result in having to seek medical intervention. You can experience the same problems if you try shaving warts, as you’ll learn in this article.
A wart that is correctly removed intact has a smooth and round bottom, and it will leave a smooth crater. You won’t see anything that looks like a root. Warts need to be scooped out, usually with a spoon-shaped tool, rather than dug out.
A Virus, Not Roots, Spread Warts
Warts are caused by a virus. The virus can only live in the top layer of skin, which is why that’s where warts grow. The virus invades skin cells by inserting its DNA into the cell. Every cell in the wart can, therefore, be the cause of a new wart. Scratching a wart or trying to dig it out releases the infectious skin cells.
If the infected skin cells can find a break in your skin, then a new wart can appear. That is how warts spread from one part of your body to another part. Keep in mind that the virus that causes warts can live for a short time on objects.
These include:
- Razors.
- Other personal grooming items.
- Clothing.
- Bedding.
Any of these items can carry the virus from one part of your body to another or from one person to another. You can learn more about how warts spread in this article.
I Want an Answer About Roots in Plantar Warts
Plantar warts grow on your feet and toes. Because of their location, they can be the most painful of all warts. They are also easily irritated by shoes, and many individuals want to remove them. Like other warts, plantar warts are caused by a virus infecting the top layer of skin. They are spread the same way other warts are. Plantar warts do not have seeds, and they do not have roots.
Your skin can form a callus over a plantar wart. The callus can sometimes completely cover the wart. The pressure of walking can force a plantar wart inward. The surface of it will then be even with the surface of your foot. Many people refer to these as ingrown warts. That can also lead to the mistaken belief that the warts have roots.
Warts have various names. Medically, warts are called verrucas. Informally, most have a name that describes either their appearance or their location. For example, flat warts get their name because they don’t protrude from the surface of your skin. Your doctor might call them verruca plana.
Common warts are those that grow most often on your hands and fingers. The warts on your feet are common warts, but they’re called plantar warts. Plantar is the medical designation for the sole of your foot.
How Do I Remove?
Because warts do not have roots, there isn’t a specific procedure for removing a root. All warts are removed in essentially the same way. Some of the procedures will leave a wart scar, as described in this article. That means that where your wart is growing is one of the factors in deciding the best way to remove it.
Removing at Home
Many individuals try home remedies first. Dozens of remedies exist. Every person is different, so there isn’t any one remedy that will work for everyone. You’ll have to experiment. One technique that’s been successful for a lot of people is to place a piece of duct tape over the wart. You need to make sure the tape adheres tightly as it works by sealing the wart off from the air and suffocating it.
Trying Over the Counter Products
When home remedies are too slow or ineffective, many individuals turn to over the counter products. Many of these products contain salicylic acid, which will erode your wart layer by layer.
Wart removal products are available as:
- Liquids.
- Creams, ointments, and gels.
- Patches or pads.
- Bandaids.
- Sprays.
The variety makes it easy to select a product best suited for the kind of wart you have and where it is located.
Call a Doctor
The fastest way to remove a wart is to consult a skin specialist.
The procedure used to remove your wart depends on:
- Where your warts or located.
- How large your warts are.
- How many warts you have.
- Your overall health.
- Your preferences.
Medical procedures include, but are not limited to:
- Freezing,
- Cauterization (burning),
- Excision (cutting out),
- Laser,
- Prescription strength creams.
Some of the procedures can be painful, and some are expensive. It’s important that you ask questions and make sure you understand why and what procedure will be used to remove your warts.
It’s important to understand that regardless of how your wart is removed, you have only eliminated the symptom of a viral infection. The virus is still living on your skin. Your immune system eventually suppresses the virus, and your warts will disappear without further treatment.
You can find further details of Warts here.
