{"id":19191,"date":"2020-10-27T11:07:28","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T03:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finddoc.com\/health\/?p=19191"},"modified":"2020-11-10T16:40:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T08:40:56","slug":"bumps-warts-or-milia-on-your-face-inappropriate-treatment-may-cause-scars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finddoc.com\/health\/en\/doctors-blog\/bumps-warts-or-milia-on-your-face-inappropriate-treatment-may-cause-scars\/","title":{"rendered":"Bumps, warts or milia on your face? Inappropriate treatment may cause scars!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When small brown bumps grow on one&#8217;s face or pea-sized lesions grow on one&#8217;s hands and feet, people often mistake them for milia. Even though they might be asymptomatic, these lumps and bumps may actually be viral warts, regardless whether they may be unsightly or not. How does one get rid of them? Some people think that they can easily get rid of warts by beauticians for wart removal or even buying over the counter home remedies for self treatment. However, many wart-removal products can cause skin irritation or even irreversible damages. Without a proper professional diagnosis and definitive treatment by a doctor, treatment efficacy may be limited and there will even be the possibility of worsening the situation and leaving damaging scars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>What are &#8220;warts&#8221;?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Warts are abnormal keratinous growths in the outer skin caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). People who are elderly, have weaker immune systems, under greater pressure, or have poor personal hygiene may be more prone to being infected. Although warts do not cause serious illness, they are infectious and hence contagious which means they can spread to other bodily parts as well to other close contacts at home or at work. Modes of spread include walking barefoot in public areas; sharing slippers, towels, cosmetics and other personal items with infected people; swimming in public swimming pools; bathing in hot springs; using fitness equipment; and receiving unsterilized beauty treatments etc. Therefore, paying attention to hygiene is an extreme vital part of wart prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>How to distinguish warts, freckles, milia, and calluses?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><strong>Wart<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Freckle<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Milium<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Callus<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Cause<\/strong><\/td><td>HPV infection<\/td><td>Exposure to sunlight, aging of skin<\/td><td>Excessive oil secretion<\/td><td>Thickening of stratum corneum (outermost skin) from long-term friction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Appearance<\/strong><\/td><td>Black, brown or flesh-coloured; possibly black in the centre; often grow in clusters; slightly raised surfaces<\/td><td>Yellow, brown; relatively flat; colour may gradually deepen to a dark brown<\/td><td>Mostly yellow-white, round, raised surface<\/td><td>Large, irregular in shape, thick and rough to the touch<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Common locations<\/td><td>Anywhere on the body<\/td><td>Anywhere on the upper body<\/td><td>Forehead, nose, below the eyes; areas with greater oil secretion<\/td><td>Palms and soles<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<h2>Modes of treatments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In most cases, warts will\ndisappear after proper treatment. Clinics and beauty salons may offer various\nwart removal treatments, and certain shops may also sell ointments or lotions.\nSince most warts are not painful or itchy, patients will typically\nunderestimate the condition and use over the counter (OTC) medicines or go to\nbeauty salons for treatment. However, such self-medication is never worth it\ndue to incomplete removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>1. Self-removal<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Some patients will\nattempt to cut off raised warts themselves. However, wart-causing viruses are\nlocated much deeper in the skin. Merely cutting off a superficial wart\npartially cannot permanently cure it and may instead lead to an infected wound.\nAfter the wound is healed, the virus will still be present and warts still grow\nand spread.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>2. Cryotherapy (Freezing)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Medical cryotherapy uses\nliquid nitrogen at approximately -200\u00b0C to treat the affected area. This\ndestroys the infected epidermal tissue and indirectly removes the virus\nresponsible for the wart. Generally, cryotherapy needs to be performed every\n2-3 weeks until the warts are completely removed. During each treatment, the\npatient will feel a cold and tingling sensation on the targeted area. After\ntreatment, there is usually no scarring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for OTC cryotherapy\nwart removal patches or pens, they will usually only reach temperatures of -50\nto -60\u00b0C. Hence, the inadequate temperatures reached by home liquid nitrogen\nare not very effective at destroying viral warts. In addition, repeated use of\nthe same cryotherapy wart removal product in different locations on the body\nmay cause cross-infection; unsuccessfully removed warts may spread and\nmultiply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>3. Using high acidity\nointments and lotions <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Prescription-strength\nwith high acidic content (salicylic acid) ointments and lotions for warts can\nremove excess stratum corneum (outermost skin) layers by layers of wart being\nremoved. Used daily, they may help remove warts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, these topicals\ncan be time consuming and even cause skin irritations after prolonged use.\nTherefore, the treatment should be performed by trained professional medical\nstaff to ensure safety and may benefit from combination with cryotherapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>4. Electrocautery\ntreatment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Electrocautery treatment\nis a method that directly destroys wart tissues and can eliminate wart\nindefinitely. Proper handling and use of electrocautery professionally is vital\nas this procedure is prone to scarring with a relatively long recovery period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3><strong>5. Laser treatment<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Doctors may use a carbon dioxide laser or pulsed-dye laser to treat warts. The carbon dioxide laser will vaporize the wart tissue and the fuel pulse laser will heat up the blood cells inside the wart, thereby destroying the wart tissue. Prior to treatment, a doctor will apply topical anaesthesia to the wart infected area to minimize patient discomfort. The treated area will recover within 5 to 10 days after the procedure and usually without scarring. This office procedure is relatively quick with permanent removal within 1-2 sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n        <div class=\"mb-3 \">\n            <a\n                class=\"btn btn-primary\"\n                href=\"https:\/\/www.finddoc.com\/en\/club\/%E9%86%AB%E5%AD%B8%E7%9A%AE%E8%86%9A%E5%95%8F%E9%A1%8C-%E6%BF%80%E5%85%89%E5%8E%BB%E7%96%A3-30\"\n            >\n                Book for Laser Treatment Now\n            <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n\n<p>This health article was written by the FindDoc editorial team, and has been reviewed by Dr. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finddoc.com\/en\/doctors\/chang-elizabeth-9633\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Elizabeth Chang (opens in a new tab)\">Elizabeth Chang<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When small brown bumps grow on one&#8217;s face or pea-sized lesions grow on one&#8217;s hands and feet, people often mistake them for milia. Even though they might be asymptomatic, these lumps and bumps may actually be viral warts, regardless whether they may be unsightly or not. How does one get rid of them? Some people &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.finddoc.com\/health\/en\/doctors-blog\/bumps-warts-or-milia-on-your-face-inappropriate-treatment-may-cause-scars\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2072,2067],"tags":[1771,1700],"acf":[],"yoast_meta":{"yoast_wpseo_title":"Bumps, warts or milia on your face? 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