Warts -- Duct Tape vs. Dermatologist

When my daughter, Anne, was 10 years old she developed a large wart on her left hand. After trying Compound W for a few months, the wart not only would not shrink, it spread and she then had three warts between both hands, so off we went to the dermatologist.

Makes sense, right?

Wrong. Every visit to this doctor's office made her wart situation worse. First they tried freezing them with liquid nitrogen. Nothing happened so they tried a second time. Again the warts did not shrink. They then used an acid to burn the warts. This procedure was performed two different times, and both times resulted in large, yellow blisters, as intended. But unfortunately new warts grew around the outer circles of the larger blisters. Finally, after many months and painful visits to the dermatologist, and the warts growing and spreading during this time, the doctor suggested surgery to remove the warts, which would leave scars all over her hands.

We high-tailed it out of there.

I can't find the picture of her hands after the treatments at the doctor's (dang) but it is unbelievable. The back of her left hand was almost entirely full of huge warts, and two fingers on the other hand were covered with warts.

At this point my mother suggested duct tape, and we thought "why not"? We bought regular, then clear, then finally opaque duct tape at Menards (which blended in with the skin color better). It was a huge effort that took about four months. Although Anne had about 15 warts, some as big as inch in diameter, they all cleared without leaving any scars or marks.

The secret? The tape has to stay on ALL the time in order to "suffocate" the warts. My husband and I constantly cut circles of the tape slightly larger than each wart. The tape would fall off or get wet, and we just cut new sections. Some people suggest only 6 days but that is not long enough. We did not use an emery board on the warts. We just kept the tape on until they disappeared, for weeks. Anne wasn't thrilled with the tape at first, but when she could actually see the warts getting smaller and flatter after just the first week or so, she was just as determined as we were.

While this treatment is not easy to do and requires determination, it is free, painless, effective, and better than any other alternative we tried. Thanks, Mom!

What is disheartening is that the next time I went to the dermatologist (for another reason), I explained to him how the duct tape eliminated her warts, thinking he would be interested in order to help other patients. He dismissed my comments, vaguely saying that the warts probably cleared on their own. Huh? Fortunately his nurse was excited and planned to pass this information along.

Yes, we finally switched to a new doctor.