When to See a Doctor

If OTC wart removers don’t work, you can talk to a doctor about stronger treatments. Doctors generally take two general approaches to wart treatment, says Silverberg. They can destroy the wart or boost the immune system so it will clear the wart.

Doctors typically remove warts in one of three ways:

• Doctors may freeze the wart with liquid nitrogen, she says, a more potent medicine than found in over-the-counter freezing remedies.
• Doctors can also give parents prescription-strength salicylic acid to apply to the wart at home.
• Your dermatologist can also use a laser to destroy the wart. Less often, the doctor may remove it surgically, but this treatment can leave a scar so it’s usually the last resort.

Krol and Silverberg say doctors can build up the immune system to fight warts in a number of ways. Among them:

• Your doctor may prescribe Tagamet to stimulate the immune system so it “attacks” and clears the wart. This medicine must be taken for two or three months to work.
• Your doctor may inject the wart with substances such as Candida skin test antigen. Treatment success depends on the ability of the immune system to recognize viral and fungal antigens and “attack” the wart.
• Your doctor may apply a topical preparation such as squaric acid to the skin to boost immune functioning. Silverberg says the acid is a “universal allergen.” Nearly everyone reacts to it as a foreign invader, kicking the immune system into action.