Freezing Off Warts - The Pro's And Con's

People who are affected by warts tend to have recurring problems with warts appearing and re-appearing. The truth is that we all carry the virus that causes warts but it only appears on the skin's surface for some people and it usually varies in intensity. Although there is no way to "kill" the virus we can treat it when it does appear on your skin's surface.

Warts can spread and it is considered highly contagious - not just between people but rather spreading on yourself. By touching warts on your body you can spread it to other parts of your body and if you are not careful it can become a real problem.

One of the most effective ways to remove warts is with cryosurgery which is a process by which the warts are "frozen off" using liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is kept at a very low temperature and it instantly freezes anything it comes into contact. Although this is a very popular method to remove warts it does have certain advantages and certain disadvantages.

The main advantage of cryosurgery (or cryotheraphy as its sometimes referred to) is that its quick and that it usually kills the wart all the way to the root. Although this is a procedure that has to be carried out by a doctor its relatively straight forward and can be done under a local anesthetic. There is no scalpel involved which means minimal scarring.

The main downside of this procedure is that its expensive. It has to be done by a doctor which means you will have to cover the medical expenses which is not covered by most medical funds since this is considered cosmetic.. It can also be quite painful and if the liquid nitrogen comes in contact with healthy skin it can be extremely painful. There are home kits available from drug stores that uses a similar technology but you need to be extremely careful as it can go very wrong.