CryoPen Treatment in Harley Street, London

Warts are contagious and spread easily through contact. This means they can transfer from one area of your face and body to another, as well as to other people. The symptoms of infection do not always appear immediately, and it can take months before a wart finally appears.

Pigmentation in the skin around the affected area may slightly increase, and it is often more noticeable in those with darker skin. This effect will fade and disappear as time passes.

While the treatments tend not to leave a scar, it can take some time for the skin in the area to return to normal.

Patients find laser removal treatments to be virtually pain free, and it has been compared to being flicked with an elastic band in when performed in the most sensitive areas. Cryotherapy is also without pain as the treatment area is numbed before treatment.

When either treatment is completed, the skin in the area may remain tender for several days. It will need to be covered for this period, and it is recommended that a sunscreen is used on the area for 6 months due to the treated skin being more sensitive to sunlight.

We use a pulsed YAG laser to perform wart removal treatment. This enables us to target and destroy the wart or verruca with damaging the healthy skin that surrounds it. Laser treatment cuts off the blood supply to the wart, safely removing it from your body.

The CryoPen® Cryosurgery device uses nitrous oxide to remove skin lesions. It creates a high-pressure ultra-cold jet that destroys the tissue by freezing the wart. The blood supply to the wart is once again interrupted and the freezing temperature rupture the cell membranes within the wart, killing and removing the wart safely and effectively.

This will be determined by the size and location of the wart or verruca. Your practitioner will assess the lesion and will advise you on the required treatment. Simple warts that have previously been untreated have the potential to be removed in a single treatment, where other warts may need up to 6 treatments to be fully dealt with. In this instance, treatments are performed at 4-week intervals.

Warts are transmitted through contact, which means you can easily catch warts by direct contact with warts on other people or between different parts of your body. Warts may also be contracted via contact with objects that have been touched or used by someone with a wart, including socks, shoes, towels, and even surfaces like floors. To prevent the spread of warts, it is wise to treat them as soon as possible.

Most clients do not require the use of anaesthetic of painkillers as at most, wart and verruca treatments are mildly uncomfortable and not painful. The procedure is quick, and so any discomfort is kept to a minimum.

A verruca may contain black or red-brown dots that can easily be seen. These are small blood vessels that are found under the skin, known as capillaries. The virus that causes warts smothers and kills these capillaries by causing layers of skin to grow, which can then be seen as dark dots within the verruca.

Always ensure that you keep your feet clean and wear fresh socks every day – and never share shoes or socks with someone else. If you’ve had a wart or verruca removed, do not use any nail file, clippers, or pumice stone that you previously used while having the condition.

Once the treatment has been completed, the skin in the area that has been treated may remain pink and tender for several days. In a few cases, blistering may occur, which needs to be kept covered. After healing, there may be a slight darkening of the skin where the lesion previously was – this is just a temporary situation and the skin will gradually return to normal. Any wart or verruca that has been successfully treated will simply dry up and detach itself as any other dead skin will.

It is possible for a wart or verruca to heal without intervention, but it is not common and may take a very long time. It is more likely to happen in children, and far less likely in adults and people with weakened immune systems.

Once treated and removed, a wart or verruca will not and cannot grow back. However, as warts are caused by a virus, if the virus remains active in your body it is possible further lesions may appear.