Easy Ways to Prevent Plantar Warts

If you haven’t already started doing so, it’s about time to start thinking about the upcoming Halloween holiday. For various reasons—like parties and taking children trick-or-treating—you might dress up to celebrate with friends and families. No matter your costume of choice, you don’t want to experience pain and discomfort from a wart on the bottom of your foot. Fortunately, there are plantar wart prevention tips you can follow and, even better, they aren’t particularly complicated. 

Plantar warts can be particularly painful when you spend a significant amount of time on your feet, as is the case for parties and taking your children trick-or-treating. You don’t want a wart to develop before then—or at any time, really—so use the following tips to keep your feet wart-free:

• Keep your feet dry and clean. Warts are caused by certain strands of a common virus known as human papillomavirus (HPV). Damp or wet skin can easily become damaged and provide an easy point of entry for HPV. This infection can result in a wart, so protect your feet by keeping them dry and clean.
• Protect your feet. You can further protect your feet by wearing sandals or shower shoes in often-contaminated areas like gym showering areas, locker rooms, and pool decks. Another protective measure is to wear moisture-wicking socks to prevent damage to wet skin.
• Don’t touch warts. Making contact with a wart is one way to contract the offensive virus, so do not touch one (either on yourself or someone else).
• Do not share certain items with others. Razors, towels, socks, and shoes are items which can become contaminated and lead to a transfer of the virus. Make sure you have, and use, your own items like those.
• Keep them covered. One way to reduce the risk of warts spreading is to cover existing ones with a clean bandage. This also provides a limited amount of extra cushion for the viral growth.

We hope these plantar wart prevention tips are able to protect you, but eliminating all risk of the viral growths can be difficult. In the event you do end up with a wart on either of your feet, come see us at our Bloomington, IN podiatrist office and we will remove it for you, no matter if you’ve seen us before or are a new patient.

Give us a call at (812) 333-4422, or contact us online today, to request your appointment for exceptional foot care services.