Oh, a million things that plague adolescents. But in this case we’re referring to the rough, skin-colored bumps that appear without warning on the face, hands, knees and feet. Yes, we mean common warts.
Warts are caused by a virus called the human papillomavirus, or HPV, of which there are about 75 types. The common wart isn’t terribly contagious from person to person, but scratching or picking one can spread it to unaffected skin.
Kids are more prone to warts than adults, most likely because “their immune systems are more immature and more vulnerable to the virus,” dermatologist Dr. Robert Polisky says. A person can tell a wart from some other skin growth by looking for “black dots,” blood vessels that feed the wart, Polisky says. (Don’t scrape a wart to look; you might see them if you’re using an over-the-counter treatment and the wart is starting to go away.)
Warts are almost as common as teen acne and in some cases just as awful. So why do we hear so little about them?
“People hesitate to complain about warts, because they’re not dangerous and because they’re flesh-colored and often hard to see,” Polisky says.
Huh! Try telling that to kids who get them.
Courtney S., 14, of Chicago remembers her one and only wart as if it were yesterday. “I was 11,” she recalls. “I had a wart on the underside of my ring finger on my right hand.”
Courtney tried to pick it off, which only made it worse. Then her mom bought an over-the-counter wart cream. “It took about two weeks to go away,” she says, “but it finally did. I only had it for a month, but it seemed like forever.”
Because warts dig beneath the skin’s surface, many are hard to get rid of with over-the-counter treatments, Polisky says. This is especially true of warts that form on palms or soles.
“A wart is like the iceberg that sank the Titanic,” Polisky says. “Most of the action is beneath the surface.”
Andrew P., 13, of Arlington Heights had a wart on his knee that seemed invincible. “It was right after I had an accident where I cut my knee,” he recalls. When the cut healed, the wart popped up. (An American Academy of Dermatology pamphlet on warts notes that they are more common in areas where the skin is broken.)
Andrew was disgusted by the growth. “It was pretty big.”
And it wouldn’t go away no matter what he did. So Andrew went to a doctor, who, just like that, burned it off. (Polisky says doctors use a painless laser treatment or liquid nitrogen to get rid of warts.)
If left alone, many warts go away by themselves. It may take months, but one day they just vanish. “The body suddenly recognizes the virus that causes the wart and knocks it out,” Polisky says.
Because warts are caused by a virus, they’re difficult to prevent. But scientists are working on a vaccine to stump the virus. Until then, if you have multiple warts, a wart that’s painful or a wart that you think is just plain ugly, try an over-the-counter treatment. If that doesn’t work, don’t hesitate to see a doctor.
Don’t suffer in silence because others think a wart is no big deal. If it matters to you, it’s a big deal.
