Best [facial] Wart Removal?

[jaideeguy]

My 91 yr old father has a wart that sprung up on his face....just midway between his eyes and up from his eyebrows and I did find an imported wart removal med [sylicidic acid sp?] that I was going to use, but read cautions and it says not to use near eyes and treatment could last up to 12 weeks. i then googled 'wart removal' and found that 'silver nitrate' was the silver bullet...only 3 - 5 treatments, but again not for facial warts.

Can't drag Pop into the hospital, as he is bedridden and could result in broken bones....has osteoporosis.

Does anyone know of a safe way to remove facial warts with what's available here???

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

Combining raw unpasteurized Apple cider vinegar with some crushed up aspirin made into a paste and soaked into piece of cotton ball and held in place with a band aid overnight.

Sometimes it can start to burn a little and should be removed if its too uncomfortable.

Most warts can be treated this way with three nights of treatment. Does not necessarily need to be concurrent but should be fairly close to every night.

After each night a small amount of Vit E or cold pressed coconut oil can be applied for healing especially after the 3 days. The wart will turn white and fall out a few days later. It's important to not pick or irritate it because it could become infected or leave a scar. Just put oil on it periodically after the 3 days.

Within about a week most will be completely gone.

[britmaveric]

Apple cider does the trick.

[Sheryl]

I can't speak to the efficacy of the home remedies above buty they can;t hurt.

It would not be safe to use the medical preparations that are available given the location of the lesion.

The other option of course is to simply let it be. It's purely a cosmetic problem and your dad doesn't sound like he'd be worried about that.

[Robby nz]

Dont know about facial warts but when I was younger I had a lot of warts on my hands and when went to a doctor he removed them with liquid nitrogen which froze them off.

Warts, or the ones I had have no nerves but there was some pain because the liquid nitrogen also affected some of the surrounding flesh and that meant it took a while to heal and I still have the scars from that first treatment.

After a while they grew back and I figured that if cold could kill them so also heat should be able to do the same thing.

As I said there was no nerves in the warts themselves I could stick a pin in them and feel nothing.

So I used a bit of welding rod with the tip heated to red hot and applied it to one of the warts, as soon as I felt any pain I took it off and the wart dropped off in 2 days leaving only a small hole that healed up very quickly.

After that success I did the rest of them with good results. Doing it myself meant as soon as I could feel any pain I could remove the heat and therefore have very little effect on surrounding flesh.

I have had the odd wart since and have always done the same.

[jaideeguy]

The apple cider vinegar and asparin sounds quite uninvasive.....especially compared to a soldering iron. I would do the soldering iron trick on myself, but hard to do on a 90 yr old man near his eyes. Or, , I may go with Sheryl's advise, as vanity is not one of my Pop's traits anymore.

BTW.....unfiltered apple cider vinegar may be hard to get here. would other vinegars work??

[FBN]

Just a word of caution; the diagnosis may not be accurate. Warts very seldom occur on the face especially in that age group. It may well a be a pre-malignant growth at this age but these are usually harmless.

The treatment here with all the acids and liquids, even mild, may still be risky to use so close to the eyes. If your father tends to get confused at times (common at this age) he may inadverantly rub over this area and get whatever you have applied into his eyes.

Most of these treatments may cause an ulcer after use and this, again in this age group, may be a risk for skin infections etc and may take very long to heal even without any infection.

Treatment here may be worse than the disease...

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

The apple cider vinegar and asparin sounds quite uninvasive.....especially compared to a soldering iron. I would do the soldering iron trick on myself, but hard to do on a 90 yr old man near his eyes. Or, , I may go with Sheryl's advise, as vanity is not one of my Pop's traits anymore.

BTW.....unfiltered apple cider vinegar may be hard to get here. would other vinegars work??

its mostly the acetic and malic acid your after. Usually the S&W or Heinz Apple cider vinegar is available widely and would be a acceptable alternative.

As FBN mentioned it might not be a wart at all. Usually a wart if observed very closely has tiny dark specks within the lesion.

The classic way to test for a wart is to coat it with acetic acid(5% vinegar) and look at it under a black light. If it appears white then its a wart. A slower test is to treat it with vinegar in a preparation perhaps for an hour or so and remove and observe the lesion. If it turns white in the next day or so then its a wart.

You might want to take a close up picture of it and upload to a dermatology forum or email to a doctor and get an idea about its nature. It could be a number of things.

[jaideeguy]

So FBN, you're suggesting to just 'let it be' and not treat??

That has been my [and Pop's] attitude with regard to skin problems at his age and condition.

To be a little more precise.....it is a small cauliflower shaped wart located at least an inch from both eyes.......up from his eyebrows. About the size of a rice grain and it sprouted a couple of months ago.

He does heal pretty good [no skin infections], but with his thin skin, he bleeds easily.

I may try the apple cider vinegar route, as it was confirmed by 'dr google' and make sure it is well covered with a good bandage.