At home | Wart removal through icing

At home

It is not always necessary to see a doctor to remove your warts. Sets to ice warts at home are now even available over the counter in drugstores or pharmacies. This easy accessibility makes this method for many people an interesting alternative to icing in the dermatologist’s office.

If you decide to ice your wart on your own, you should be sure that the affected skin area is really a wart. It is also recommended to ice the warts at home only in easily accessible places that are not too sensitive. In sensitive areas where the skin is very thin, such as around the eyes or even in the genital area, you should consult a doctor.

Even with small children, a doctor should be consulted for safety reasons. As the temperature at home when the warts freeze up is not as low as at the dermatologist, it is more common that the procedure has to be performed more than once. When freezing at home, the instructions for use in the package insert should be followed.

You should take care to thoroughly clean and disinfect the skin around the wart before freezing. In addition, it is important to observe the specified icing time, because too long a period of icing can lead to damage of the surrounding tissue. If the tissue around the nipple is already reddened or swollen before icing, it is recommended to avoid icing at home and to consult a physician.

The wart should be left alone for 1 to 2 weeks after icing and in no case should the wart be scratched, because the manipulation can cause inflammation or scars. If the first attempt does not show the hoped-for success, a new attempt can be made after 2 to 3 weeks. After the third unsuccessful attempt, a doctor should be consulted.

Duration

The success of the treatment depends on many different factors. Especially the temperature, the type of wart, as well as the length of icing play a role. In many cases it is sufficient to ice the wart once for a few seconds.

Especially in domestic use, however, it has been shown that it is necessary to treat the wart a few more times, because the temperatures are not so low when we go to the doctor. It can happen that the wart is then only partially iced and so a new icing a few weeks later is necessary. A few minutes after freezing the wart should turn a whitish color.

In the following days, an orange-colored blister can form. Within a few days this blister will flatten out and new skin will form underneath. If the frozen wart falls off because the cells of the wart have died, the new, healthy skin will appear underneath. This process takes about 10-14 days until the new skin has formed.