Not all warts need to be treated. They generally go away on their own within months or years.² This may be because, with time, your immune system is able to destroy the human papillomavirus that causes warts.

You may decide to treat a wart if it is:

• Painful.
• Embarrassing.
• Easily irritated.
• Growing or spreading to other parts of your body or to other people.

The goal of wart treatment is to destroy or remove the wart without creating scar tissue, which can be more painful than the wart itself. How a wart is treated depends on the type of wart, its location, and its symptoms. Also important is your willingness to follow a weeks- or months-long course of treatment.

Many people first treat warts themselves by using a nonprescription product such as salicylic acid or nonprescription cryotherapy, which freezes the wart. Cryotherapy can also be done in your doctor's office.

Wart treatment is not always successful. Even after a wart shrinks or disappears, warts may return or spread to other parts of the body. This is because most treatments only destroy the wart and do not kill the virus that causes the wart.

For more information, see:

Should I treat warts or plantar warts?

Home treatment

Many people do not treat warts unless they are unsightly or painful. If you choose to treat your wart, home treatment is usually the first treatment tried. It includes:

• Salicylic acid, a nonprescription medication that softens the skin layers that form a wart so that they can be rubbed off. It is available as a paint, cream, plaster, tape, or patch that you put on the wart. Salicylic acid may take weeks to months to cure a wart. Salicylic acid formulas include Compound W Wart Remover, Occlusal, and Salacid.
• Tape occlusion (duct tape). This treatment uses tape to cover the wart for a period of time.
• Nonprescription cryotherapy. Although cryotherapy can be performed in your health professional's office, a type of this treatment for common warts on the hands and feet can be done at home. You spray a combination of two chemicals into a foam applicator and then hold the applicator to the wart for a few seconds. This treatment should not be used for children younger than 4 or by pregnant or breast-feeding women.

If you are uncertain that a skin growth is a wart, or if you have diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, or other major illnesses that may affect your treatment, it is best to see a health professional.

Treatment by your health professional

Cryotherapy is often used if home treatment is not successful. This procedure uses a very cold liquid to freeze a wart. Cryotherapy poses little risk of scarring, although it can be painful.