This spring you should keep your eyes open for plantar warts. Plantar warts on the feet are usually painful when squeezing, walking, or standing. These warts grow inward rather than outward. Planter is a word that simply means the bottom of the foot. This makes any wart found on the sole of your foot a plantar wart. These warts are encapsulated or walled off growths off viral tissue. Warts are mainly found on young adults, teenagers, and children. The growth of a wart in many cases is preceded by some kind of skin puncture or wound defect that in all probability allowed an entry site for contamination.
An interesting and often confusing distinction must be made between certain calluses and plantar warts. Skin lines or striations can be seen through callus tissue whereas they will pass around a wart. In addition, plantar warts upon close examination, will often demonstrate small black dots which when trimmed will bleed. These are tiny blood vessels, which become caught in the growth itself and are absent in regular callus tissue. A final line of distinction in identifying a wart is in its response to pressure. Squeezing a wart will usually produce extreme pain as opposed to similar pain from direct pressure on calluses.
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