Plantar warts are caused by HPV or the human papillomavirus. This affects the soles of your feel. Warts can be painful and unsightly. It can be challenging to treat plantar warts with traditional methods. One treatment method that is used for successful removal of plantar warts is Swift therapy.
Plantar warts are essentially non-cancerous growths
That can be caused by HPV and this will appear on the weight bearing areas of your feet. This can be the soles or heels. These have a rough grainy texture along with small black dots. These dots are clotted blood vessels. You can experience pain and discomfort when you walk or stand as there will be pressure on the affected area. You can visit a healthcare professional for the treatment of plantar warts Sydney. Traditional treatments for this include topical medications, surgical excision and laser therapy. These methods can be slow and painful and sometimes, this will not be effective. Topical treatments such as over-the-counter or prescription strength salicylic acid is used for weeks or monthly continuously. This has a varied success rate. There is also cryotherapy where the wart is frozen with liquid nitrogen. This is quite painful and you will need to have multiple sessions. It can irritate or blister your skin as well. Then there are invasive procedures where you can cut out the part but this will have a prolonged recovery.
Swift therapy is quite a new and innovative treatment for plantar warts.
It uses microwave energy to target the HPV infected tissue and destroy it. This is a non-invasive treatment and you don’t have to undergo anaesthesia for it. This makes it suitable for children and adults. Precise and controlled microwave energy is delivered directly to the wart tissue so that an immune response can be triggered. This will help eliminate the virus at the end. A qualified healthcare professional such as a dermatologist or podiatrist will need to assess the plantar wart to see if the swift therapy is suitable for it. They will consider the size and location of the wart along with the medical history of the patient. During treatment, microwave energy will be applied to the wart using a special handheld device. This is a quick procedure and generally, it will only take a few seconds per wart.
When controlled microwave energy is applied to the wart tissue,
Heat is generated within and this will stimulate the immune response of the body. This will help break down the wart and clear the HPV virus. You will be able to resume your day to day activities after the session as there is no downtime needed for this procedure. You may experience some mild discomfort and there can be redness at the treatment site. But these will resolve quite quickly. You may need to have multiple treatments depending on the number and size of the warts. You will need to go for follow-up appointments as required so that progress can be monitored. There is a high success rate with swift therapy and this will lead to complete clearance of warts with fewer sessions compared to other methods.
