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Dr. Chrysoula I. Liakou MD, PhD
- Treated online: Yes, usually. Common, plantar, plane and filiform warts are identified from close-up photos plus video and topical treatment prescribed when treating is worthwhile; warts on the face, genital warts and lesions that do not behave like warts are directed to the right in-person care.
- What they are: benign growths of the outer skin caused by HPV types that infect skin, not the types linked to cancer; warts affect about 1 in 3 children and 1 in 20 adults, and the virus takes 2 to 6 months to produce a visible wart.
- Clear-alone odds: about half of children's warts disappear within a year and about 2 in 3 of all warts within 2 years as immunity catches up; adults clear them more slowly, which is why treatment is more often chosen after 18.
- Treatment: daily salicylic acid for up to 12 weeks with weekly filing is the best-evidenced home treatment for hand and foot warts, clearing roughly half; clinic freezing does about as well over 3 to 4 sessions, and regrowth is common with every method.
- Spread: warts spread by skin contact and via wet floors, shared towels and files, entering through small breaks in the skin; covering verrucas at pools, not picking or biting warts, and keeping files personal limit the spread.
- Emergency: no wart is a 112 emergency; the rare exception is a treated area that turns into a spreading infection with high fever or confusion.
Most warts are harmless and in no hurry. Book differently if the lesion does not behave like one: bleeding without injury, fast growth, colour change, pain at rest, or a new "wart" appearing in later adulthood deserve a diagnosis first, and possibly in-person assessment. Warts in the genital area belong with our genital warts service, not with over-the-counter wart products.
Can an online doctor treat warts?
Usually, yes. Warts have a distinctive surface that photographs well, so an online doctor can typically confirm the diagnosis, say which type of wart it is, and either prescribe topical treatment or explain honestly why leaving it alone is reasonable. Physical procedures such as freezing are in-person care, arranged by referral.[1]
Just as importantly, an online consultation answers the question people rarely get to ask: does this wart need treating at all? On Mobi Doctor, the doctor gives you the diagnosis and the honest version of the options, including the option of doing nothing and letting your immune system finish the job.
How an online consultation helps with warts
- Certainty about what it is: warts have look-alikes, from corns to molluscum to, rarely, skin cancers. A photo diagnosis first means you treat the right thing or stop worrying about the wrong one.
- Type changes tactics: common, plantar, plane, filiform and periungual warts respond differently and sit on different skin; naming the type is what makes the plan work.
- An honest "treat or wait": the doctor tells you the real self-resolution odds for your age and situation, so treatment is a choice, not a reflex.[1]
- Straight talk about HPV: what having a wart virus does and does not mean, how it spreads, and why a verruca on your foot is not the HPV type the vaccine headlines are about.
📷 Before your appointment: take a sharp close-up of the wart in daylight, a second photo from further back to show its position, and something for scale, a coin works. Photograph the surface straight-on: the pattern, and the tiny black dots inside it, carry the diagnosis.
What the doctor checks in an online wart consultation
The assessment confirms the diagnosis and settles the treat-or-wait question. The doctor will typically check:
- The surface pattern: a rough, cauliflower-like surface that interrupts the normal skin lines, often with tiny black dots of clotted capillaries, is the signature of a viral wart.[2]
- The type and site: raised on fingers, flat on the sole, tiny and multiple on the face, threadlike near eyes or lips, or wrapped around a nail, each with its own outlook.
- How long, how many, and the direction of travel: stable for a year, or new ones seeding around the first?
- Whether it hurts or spreads: pain on walking, catching on clothes, spreading along shaving lines, or appearing in other household members.
- Your immune context: warts in anyone immunosuppressed, by illness or by medicines such as transplant drugs, behave differently and are managed with more care.[2]
- The features that do not fit a wart: bleeding, rapid growth, irregular colour or a lesion of later adulthood, which change the conversation from wart to diagnosis.
- What you have already tried: and how it was used, since most abandoned salicylic acid courses never reached the weeks where they work.
What are the different types of warts?
All warts are skin growths caused by the human papillomavirus, but where and how they grow changes their name, their behaviour and their treatment.[2]
Common, plantar and plane warts
Common warts are firm, rough, raised bumps, usually on fingers, knuckles and knees, most frequent in children and young adults. Plantar warts, verrucas, grow on the soles, where body weight flattens them inward, which is why they hurt to stand on and why a ring of hard skin often hides them; a mosaic verruca is a tiled patch of many. Plane warts are small, smooth, flat-topped and often numerous, favouring the face and the backs of hands, and classically spreading in a line along a shaving scratch.
Filiform, periungual and genital warts
Filiform warts grow as a small stalk or thread, typically on the face, near the eyelids or lips, and are best left to professionals rather than home kits. Periungual warts crowd around and under nails, where they distort nail growth and resist creams, making them a common referral. Genital warts are their own condition: different HPV types, different treatments, and a different check-up pathway, covered properly on the genital warts page; over-the-counter wart products must never be used on genital skin.
Do warts mean I have HPV?
Yes, and that is less alarming than it sounds. Every wart is a small skin infection with the human papillomavirus, a family of more than a hundred types. The types behind hand and foot warts are different from the sexually transmitted types linked to genital warts and to cervical and some other cancers; a verruca does not carry that meaning.[2] Skin-wart HPV is everywhere: it passes by skin contact and via floors and surfaces, swimming pools and changing rooms above all, entering through tiny breaks in the skin. Most adults have met it; whether a wart grows depends largely on the immune system's local response, which is why children, whose immunity is still learning the virus, get the most warts, and why people with suppressed immunity get more and stubborner ones. Having warts says nothing about hygiene, and picking at them is how one wart becomes five: the virus seeds wherever wart material meets broken skin, including along shaving lines.
Will warts go away on their own?
Very often, yes, given time. In children, roughly half of warts clear by themselves within a year and about two thirds within two years, without any treatment or scarring; adult warts clear too, but more slowly and less predictably.[1] Clearance is the immune system finally recognising the virus, which is why warts sometimes vanish in a batch after years of nothing.
This is the fact that makes "do nothing" a legitimate medical option rather than neglect, and it reframes the treatment decision: every option costs weeks of effort or repeated clinic visits, so it needs to beat patience, and for a painless wart in a child it often does not.[1] Waiting has one honest cost: while a wart is present it can spread to other sites and other people, so covering verrucas at pools and not sharing towels still applies.
When is it worth treating a wart?
Treatment earns its place when a wart is painful, especially a verruca on a weight-bearing spot; when warts are multiplying or spreading along shaving areas; when a periungual wart threatens the nail; when your immunity is suppressed; and when a wart genuinely bothers you, on a hand you shake with or a face you present daily, because that distress is a real indication too. This is the framework the doctors use, aligned with the cited guidance:[1]
Swipe sideways to compare →
| Presentation | Likely first step | Suitable for online care? | When referral or in-person care is needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Painless wart in a child or young adult | Often watchful waiting: about half clear within a year | Usually yes | If it becomes painful, multiplies or distresses the child |
| Painful verruca, or warts that keep spreading | Daily salicylic acid for up to 12 weeks with filing; review after[4] | Usually yes | Failed full course: referral for cryotherapy or podiatry |
| Periungual warts, or many stubborn warts | Assessment, then usually clinic-based treatment | Assessment and referral | Nail-fold and mosaic warts respond poorly to home treatment |
| Facial warts, incl. plane and filiform | Specialist assessment; no home acids or freezing | Assessment and referral only | Always: facial skin scars easily, and look-alikes gather there |
| Lesion not behaving like a wart: bleeding, growing, changing | Diagnosis before any wart treatment | Photo review first | In-person examination promptly if suspicion remains |
Not sure which row is your wart? A doctor can tell you in one consultation.
See available times →Treatment options for warts
What you can do yourself
For hand and foot warts, pharmacy salicylic acid used daily for up to 12 weeks, after soaking and with weekly filing, is the best-evidenced home treatment; pharmacy freeze sprays are an alternative for small hand warts, though far milder than clinic cryotherapy.[1][4] Stop the spread while you wait or treat: cover verrucas in pools and shared showers, keep your own towel and razor, and leave the wart unpicked.[5] What to avoid: acids on faces, moles or broken skin, cutting tools of any kind, and the caustic pens sold online that remove skin more reliably than warts. The full comparison of methods, timelines and success rates lives on the wart removal page.
Prescription treatment
A prescription is never issued without a consultation. After confirming the wart and its type, the doctor can prescribe stronger topical preparations where pharmacy strengths have failed or do not fit the site, and plans treatment around your health, your skin and how much routine you can realistically sustain.[1] Warts are viral, so antibiotics have no role. Where procedures are the right answer, cryotherapy, curettage for selected stubborn warts, or specialist care for facial and periungual warts, the doctor refers you to in-person treatment rather than pretending a cream will do it.[2]
Is it a wart or something else?
Several lesions impersonate warts, and the impersonators are the reason a diagnosis is worth having. A corn or callus on the foot is thickened skin over a pressure point: skin lines run through it unbroken, and there are no black dots. Molluscum contagiosum, common in children, makes smooth pearly bumps with a dimpled centre, and clears by itself.[3] Seborrhoeic keratoses, the harmless "stuck-on" warty patches of middle age and later, are routinely mistaken for a sudden crop of warts. And rarely, a persistent, crusted, growing or bleeding "wart", particularly on sun-exposed skin in later adulthood, is a skin cancer wearing a disguise, which is why new warty lesions in older adults get looked at properly rather than frozen on assumption. If a growth is changing, or you simply are not sure what a skin lump is, a photo review sorts the harmless from the needs-seeing quickly.
When warts are treated online, and when you need in-person care
Treated online: diagnosis and type identification from photos; treat-or-wait decisions with the real numbers attached; topical treatment plans, including prescription-strength options where appropriate, for hand and foot warts; failed-course reviews; and advice on stopping spread within a household.
In-person care: facial, filiform and periungual warts, for in-person treatment; extensive or mosaic verrucas, usually to podiatry; warts in anyone significantly immunosuppressed; any lesion whose behaviour argues against a simple wart, promptly; genital warts, to the genital warts service; and cryotherapy or minor surgery when topical treatment has genuinely run its course, as covered on the wart removal page. Warts sit alongside the other skin conditions the doctors assess online, with the same rule everywhere: photo first, honesty about what online care can and cannot do, and a named next step when it cannot.
When to get in-person care
Warts themselves are not dangerous, so the urgency lives in the exceptions. See a doctor in person promptly for any wart-like lesion that bleeds without injury, grows quickly, changes colour or shape, ulcerates, or appears new in later adulthood, and for skin around a treated wart that becomes hot, swollen and increasingly painful. If a skin infection ever comes with high fever, confusion or rapid breathing, call 112 immediately.
Treating warts at home: what helps and what does not
Home treatment genuinely works for many common warts, if you respect the timescale: daily salicylic acid from the pharmacy, with regular filing of the dead surface, takes up to three months of patience. Freezing kits are an alternative, though usually weaker than clinic freezing.
What home care cannot do: some warts must never be home-treated. Anything on the face or genitals, warts in people with diabetes or poor circulation, and any growth that bleeds, changes colour or does not look like your other warts needs a professional eye first, because destroying a misdiagnosed lesion is how skin cancers get missed. Warts still spreading after three months of honest effort also justify a doctor’s input.
You do not have to leave home for that step either: a video consultation is at-home care with a licensed doctor in it, and if treatment is right for you, the prescription can be used at a pharmacy near you. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. Book a video consultation: no subscription, exact price before payment.
How Mobi Doctor works
- Book a time that suits you: open daily 7am–11pm CET. You can see a doctor over video, usually within 15 minutes. No subscription, exact price up front.
- Upload your skin photos, then speak to a licensed doctor: a private video call: you describe what you feel, the doctor asks what matters, and you agree the right plan together.
- Leave with your plan: everything agreed before you hang up: your plan, and a prescription to use at a pharmacy near you where medication is clinically right for you. If your doctor decides you need to be seen in person, you get a full refund.
No sign-up needed
Not sure it’s a wart? Tick every symptom you have to see each condition page that mentions it. It finds the right page, not a diagnosis: a doctor gives you that on a video call.
Tap the body — an area or a point — to browse symptoms anywhere
Similar symptoms, different condition? Wart Removal can start the same way. Compare them, or look up any other symptom in the full symptom checker.
Frequently asked questions about warts
What are warts, and what causes them?
Warts are small, rough, benign growths of the outer skin caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), which enters through tiny cuts, cracks or softened skin and makes skin cells multiply into a thickened bump. The HPV types behind skin warts are different from the genital types linked to cancer. Warts are caught from direct contact, wet floors, shared towels and from one's own warts by picking.
What are the different types of warts, and what do they look like?
Common warts are rough, raised, cauliflower-like bumps on hands, fingers and knees, often with black dots. Verrucas (plantar warts) are flattened by walking, sit on the soles, and hurt when squeezed. Plane warts are small, smooth, flat-topped and multiple, on the face, backs of hands and shins. Filiform warts are thread-like stalks near the lips, eyelids or neck. Periungual warts cluster around nails.
Can an online doctor prescribe wart treatment in Europe?
Yes, after a consultation. A prescription is never issued without one: the doctor confirms the wart from your photos and video first, then prescribes topical treatment when it fits the wart and the site, with the prescription sent to a pharmacy near you. Warts on the face, genital warts and any lesion that does not behave like a wart are directed to in-person care instead.
Are warts contagious?
Yes, warts are modestly contagious. The HPV virus spreads by direct skin contact and via floors and shared surfaces, especially warm wet ones like pool sides and changing rooms, entering through small breaks in the skin, and it spreads to new sites on your own skin by picking, biting or shaving over a wart. Covering verrucas for swimming and keeping towels and files personal limits spread.
Do warts mean poor hygiene?
No: wart viruses are everywhere, and catching one reflects contact and a bit of bad luck, not cleanliness. Children get the most warts because their immune systems have not yet learned the virus, swimmers and people who do wet work or contact sports get more because their skin is softened and often broken, and most people clear their warts naturally in time.
Should my child's warts be treated?
Often the honest answer is no, or not yet: roughly half of children's warts disappear within a year on their own, and treatment takes weeks of effort or repeated freezing that children tolerate poorly. Treating makes sense when a wart hurts, spreads quickly, is on the face, or upsets the child. Mobi Doctor sees adults only, so a child's warts are assessed by a local doctor in person.
What about warts in the genital area?
Genital warts are a separate condition caused by different HPV types, with their own prescription treatments and their own check-up pathway through the sexual health service, including testing for other infections. Never use over-the-counter wart products on genital skin: they are not designed for it, they burn, and a genital lesion needs a proper diagnosis before any treatment.
How long do warts last?
Untreated, about half of children's warts clear within a year and about two-thirds of all warts within two years; in adults a wart can persist for several years, and a few last longer still. With daily salicylic acid, hand and foot warts take about 12 weeks to clear when they respond. A wart counts as gone when normal skin lines run across the spot and the black dots have gone.
Why do my warts keep coming back?
Because treatments destroy the visible wart, not the HPV in the surrounding skin, regrowth is common and does not mean anything was done wrong. Finishing full courses, treating early regrowth promptly, not picking or biting warts, and letting the immune system do its slower work are what finally end the cycle; warts that keep returning for years in an adult prompt a check of immune health.
What can I do at home for warts?
At home, treat hand and foot warts with daily salicylic acid for up to 12 weeks, soaking and filing the wart weekly with a file kept for it alone, and protecting the surrounding skin with petroleum jelly. Cover a verruca for swimming, do not pick or bite warts, and do not use acids on the face. Duct tape, garlic and vinegar have weak evidence; filing a wart with a shared tool spreads it.
How can I prevent warts?
Prevent warts by wearing flip-flops in communal showers, changing rooms and around pools, keeping feet dry, not sharing towels, socks, shoes or nail files, moisturising cracked hands and heels so the virus has no entry point, covering existing warts and verrucas, washing hands after touching a wart, and not biting nails or picking at the skin around them, which is how periungual warts start.
Is it a wart, a corn, molluscum or something more serious?
A wart is rough with black dots and interrupts the skin lines; a corn is smooth, hard, over a pressure point, and the skin lines run through it; molluscum spots are smooth, dome-shaped and pearly with a central dimple; seborrhoeic keratoses are waxy, stuck-on brown patches in later life. A lesion that bleeds without injury, grows fast, changes colour or appears new after 50 needs a diagnosis before anyone calls it a wart.
Are warts different in pregnancy or with a weakened immune system?
In pregnancy, warts often enlarge or multiply as immunity shifts and shrink again after the birth; small amounts of salicylic acid and cryotherapy are considered acceptable, and treatment is often deferred. With a weakened immune system, from transplant medicines, chemotherapy or HIV, warts are more numerous, larger and harder to clear, and any changing wart is examined in person because skin cancers can hide among them.
- Warts and verrucae: Clinical Knowledge Summary, NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries, revised 2024.
- Viral warts, DermNet New Zealand Trust, reviewed 2024.
- Molluscum contagiosum, DermNet New Zealand Trust, reviewed 2024.
- Topical treatments for skin warts, Cochrane, Cochrane Library, 2012.
- Warts and verrucas: types, causes, prevention and treatments, HSE, Health Service Executive (Ireland), accessed August 2026.
- Warts and verrucas, NHS, National Health Service (UK), reviewed July 2023.
This page is for information only and is not a substitute for a medical consultation. Guideline links are provided for transparency; treatment decisions are made with your doctor.
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