I'm interested in getting some warts removed.  I had some laser burned off
last fall, and a few remnants have since grown back a bit.  I've also got some
tiny ones that got missed.  Who in the Ann Arbor area does good cheap wart
removal?  I'd like to get them frozen off, which take a few visits to do the
job right.  I'm going to have to pay for this myself, since it is too low for
my deductible, so I'd like it to be cheap.  Freezing warts w/ liquid nitrogen
is pretty low-tech, too, so just about any doctor can handle it w/o a lot of
equipment.

Recommendations?

52 responses total.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I don't have a regular doctor, so I can't
just go to my "usual health care practitioner".  I'd also like to avoid the
usual "office visit" charge, which adds up quick on repeat visits (which only
take about 10 minutes).

Have you tried the topical remedies, like Wart-Off (tm)? 

The Merck Manual says, in regard to treatment, "No treatment is entirely
satisfactory. Though warts can be removed, the virus often remains and and
the warts recur at the same or different sites. Though many patients insist
on treatment, it is sometimes better to leave single inconspicuous warts
alone". 

The Merck Manual also mentions psychotherapy, or "hexing"! They say: "In
young children, suggestion accompanied by impressive but meaningless
manipulations, such as painting the lesions or touching them with unusual
objects or exposing them to heat lamps, is often remarkably successful,
probably due to conincidental regression of the wart."

Well, being a no-nonsense, rational scientific person, I tried this on our
daughter's warts when she was younger and was getting them on her feet
(painful for walking). I explained to her that warts could be cured if a
*bright, shiny new penny* were applied to the wart for *exactly 60
seconds*. (I could not go so far as to invent some mumbo-jumbo to intone.)
My wife was astonished that I would even contenance such a treatment but,
having great faith in the Merck Manual, I tried it - and it worked! 

Compound-W, etc., takes a long time to work and requires daily application.
I'd rather get them frozen (sort of painful) since it works and requires
little in the way of maintenance.

A friend of mine took his daughter in for a wart on the foot.  The nurse
"diagnosed" the condition, drew a circle around it with a red pen, and then
the doctor came in and painted it with a high price version of compound W.

Somewhat miffed, my friend asked if he could see the insurance bill.  The
doctor's fees were $360 and were listed as "chemo-surgery."  Of course the
office call fee was added to the $360.  The Doctor saw the patient for 5-10
minutes. 

This person complained to his firm's insurance representative, but was told
to not worry about it.

For only $250 (each) I will treat your warts with my penny treatment. No
guarantee, of course, as its efficacy depends upon your mental state, which
I cannot control.

"Freeze mist", used by electronics types to find thermal problems in 
electronic circuits, will go down to about -70C.

Do It Yourself wart removal is a bit difficult.  At one point I tried using
a soldering iron on one of them, but I wasn't able to apply enough because
of the pain factor.

Any realistic suggestions, anyone?

A guy here at work swears by banana peels.  Just tape them to the wart
before you put on your socks.

I think that would make it hard to type.

Henley's Formulas (1927 - republished by Avenel Books 1979) gives
two wart treatment formulas. One might be hard to find ingredients
for, but the other is a mixture of sulfur, acetic acid (glacial,
presumably) and glycerine. Personally, I'd suggest trying Wart-Off,
or equivalent, at least to give it a try.

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I don't know about cost, but my family's longtime dermatologist is
Dr cameron in Ann Arbor. I had warts removed as a child; I think he
was the doc who did it.

When I was in my twenties, I had warts on my a couple of my fingers,
which even altered my fingerprints. They went away by themselves, but
it took a few years.

Did your fingerprints remain altered after the warts were history?
(Maybe we have something here)

katie, I have used Cameron also and he was very good, diagnosing a head itch
no one else could and then treating it.  I called him recently to set up an
appointment and heard he had retired.  I wonder if it's the same Cameron (on
Huron Parkway??)

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Theoretically speaking, one could try topical wart-off stuff (salicylic
acid) combined with gentle shaving after a bath (softens the callus -->
scrape off as much as you can comfortably do).  You can use emory boards
or a pumice stone (should be available at the pharmacy).  I would not
recommend home use of liquid nitrogen, at least not without talking with
your doctor.  Self-application of liquid nitrogen is possible, but
requires a stern will and could lead to complications (or failure of
treatment) if used over- or under-zealously.  I definitely would not
recommend home "cooking" kinds of treatment.
 Most warts will disappear spontaneously in about two years.  The
immunology of warts is quite confusing.  The home remedies/witch doctor
approaches may work by stimulating immune responses (the biopsychosocial
model, er, the neuroimmunopharmacological model, er, you get the picture).

This item now linked to health conference

i had a seed wart on my finger and when I was a litle girl I remeber my aunt
telling me if I stole a persons old dish rag and rubbed it onthe wart and
burried it when the rag was buried for a while the wart goes away.  soooo I
snitched her dishrag..cause you have to sneak it....and rubbed real hard and
burried it in her yard..course I had grimy hands too...and  it went
away...sooooo the moral grimy hands feel lots better than a soldering iron
on a wart.....*smile*

I don't believe the connection between the dish rag being burried and the wart
going away,for obvious reasons, but is there a connection between dirty hands
and a wart going away?  I wouldn't think so, but I guess it's possible.  OTOH,
maybe the wart just went away on its own.

re:18 I have heard of that..it is the power of belief once again.  I think
Stormy was teasing about the grimy hands being a dead give away for her aunt
to know she believedthe tale.  right?

when i used to swim , i got a ton of warts on the bottom of my feet...went in
a few times to the dr. to have them frozen off.  i REALLY don't reccomend that
particular idea when you have 18 on a single foot!!!!  i got sick of that
(and was going out-of-country for 2 months), so i got a bottle of one of the
cheaper wart-removers (and i can't remember now what it was, but i'll see if
i can find it), whch removed them in 2 weeks flat.  :)  btw, the pads 
(like dr.scholl's medicated) work ok....but they itch like crazy!!!!!

Steve, I would not be inclined to believe it either, but the Merck
Manual says that psychotherapy is "often remarkably successful", and
I tried it out, and it worked. Didn't you believe me earlier in this
item? You have to use a *new* penny.

I was a diver in high school eeyore and i had planters warts also...
mine were so bad that they had to be cut out...ughhhhh
not a pretty sight...

i actually cut a coupole of them out myself...nededless to say, i didn't
realize what i was doing at the time.....:)

Warts are caused by the human papilloma virus.  Some of these viri are
suspicious in certain skin cancers.
        Chemo-cutery, cryo-cautery, elctro-cautery, thermo-cautery, etc, are
all considered forms of surgical treatment and all use the same CPT code
(Current Procedural Terminology) as assigned by the AMA.  Therefore, fees will
be the same for a brief visit, or a long one, for the same # of warts (CPT
defines 1 lesion, 2nd lesion, each add'l lesion up to 15).
        In the last few years, the FDA changed the forlumations of all wart
chemistry and allowed them to be sold OTC.  Combination products are no longer
accepted/approved.
        In my experience, visualization and the "psychotherapy" as described
above can work.  But, also in my experience, most warts do not go away by
themselves, as the books tell us.  
        Warts on the _bottom_ of your feet (plantar surface...therefore,
plantars warts) are usually more resistant to treatment because walking on
them causes you to invaginate the skin and the wart seems deeper.  The skin
is also much thicker than elsewhere on the body.
        Warts _disrupt the normal skin lines_ (dermatoglyphics), which either
go around the wart, or stop at the edge and resume at the other side.  There
is often an "orange peel" texture and people talk about seeing "black roots".
What they are actually looking at are the ends of the rete pegs from the
dermis.  They appear black if the capillaries bleed, white if they don't.
        My experience is that chemical cautery works the most reliably, with
the least pain/complications but can be a time consuming process.  I don't
know what everyone else does, but _I_ do not charge for each office visit on
the same day I charge for a treatment (except in the case of an extended visit
for such as an initial examination, or consult on another problem, etc). 
Nevertheless, medical care can be costly and a deductible can be reached
quickly with wart treatment.
        If you have insurance, and a deductible, you might want to try the OTC
stuff until the first of the year, then get professional help.  You'll have
a new deductible to meet in 1996 and, once met, you'll have the insurance
available for any medical needs for the rest of the year.

        [NOTE:  I do not suggest attempting any form of treatment without
consulting a medical professional first.  Proper diagnosis is important in
the succesful treatment of any health problem.]

you can always call me at 313.971.7177 for questions.  phone answered 24hrs
by service if i'm not there.                    good luck

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No, Scott doesn't have to worry about getting cervical cancer.  All he has
to worry about is prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and penile cancer, plus
the other types of cancer that are applicable to both sexes.

<wince!>

Re 26  I think what Valerie means is that cervical cancer is *caused* by
HPV, whereas the others mentioned are probably not.  At least, so go the
current theories.  Actually, Scott would have to worry - cervical cancer
is felt to be an STD (because of the HPV connection), so he would have to
worry about passing it to a mate if he were to be infected.  By the way,
the subtypes of HPV that cause common warts are probably *not* the same as
those causing cervical cancer.

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scary......

Makes some sense, since it is a growth of things...

(Always wear your parentheses)

I thought that cancers were thought to be related to viral infections for a
long time now.  (At least, some cancers).  Any medical types who can shed some
light on that?

Cancer is very much a catch-all term for a multitude of diseases. Leukemia
is a type of cancer.  Lymphoma is a type of cancer.  Solid tumors are
often cancer but they can also be benign.  The differential diagnosis is
based on whether the tumor is invasive and destructive and how it grows. 
I don't think anyone involved with this research is expecting a single
breakthrough "cure", more like a better understanding of what causes each
type of cancer. Some will be genetic but not hereditary, some will be
familial, some will be caused by environmental factors, some will be
caused by a combination of different biological events, and some will just
happen in the life of cells undergoing change for unknown and
unpredictable reasons. 

There are some fascinating case studies where whole tribes tend to get the
same deadly cancer, and when the research is done they find it's not
hereditary but rather the result of a traditional meal where foods are
steamed together creating a powerful carcinogen.  The tribe is told why
there is so much illness and death.  The researchers leave.  The tribe
goes right back to eating the same meal. 

So I'm not even sure when we have the answers we'll be ready for 
the cure.

anyone olde enought to remember when "Margarine" was purchased white and you
had to mix yellow dye with it to make it look like butter?  Well that yellow
dye was Methyl Yellow - now known to be a powerful carcinogen.  

Happy anniversary chelsea...:)
Marc...I heard about that once..shiver....How awful??!!!!!!

I used to love helping my mother color the margarine by kneading the
dye into the white margarine. I think Marc may know the history of this
better than I do, but I just looked up Methyl Yellow in two editions
of the Merck Index:

5th  Edition (1940): "Use: Coloring fats and butter......"

9th  Edition (1976): "Caution: FDA has declared this substance a carcinogen."

My brother and I used to fight to see who got to knead the dye into the white
margarine.  It was in a clear plastic bag with a "pill" of dye which you could
break by pressing (without tearing the outer plastic bag).  Then you squeezed
the plastic bag to knead in the color.  

I believe the dye (methyl yellow) is implicated in colon cancers, which my
father, his uncle, and my grandfather all died of.      

By the way, the reason margarine was sold white was because of the dairy lobby
which took steps to prevent the "substitute" from being marketed in a form
that looked like butter.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss