Q: I want to thank you for listing different remedies for warts. I’ve tried freezing compounds, bleach, tea tree oil, cider vinegar, duct tape, iodine, and fingernail polish. Nothing worked. After reading your column about chalk, I decided to give home remedies one more try. This time it worked!

I’m convinced different remedies work for different people. Thank you again for listing the many different remedies so we can find which one works for us.

A: Common warts (which typically appear on the hands) can be unsightly and embarrassing but generally, aren’t a health concern. Removal can often be achieved with relative ease, but the lesions can recur frequently.
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DEAR DR. GOTT: My son gets warts on his hands. His physician uses beetle juice treatments to kill the warts. We have had great success with it. It is a blistering liquid that is applied in the office and is much less painful than freezing. It burns a bit when the blisters begin to form but is much less invasive than surgery. It’s worth a try, especially with younger children.

DEAR READER: Warts are skin growths caused by infection from the human papillomavirus (HPV). There are several different forms, with the type being determined essentially by where it appears on the body and what it looks like. My guess is that your son has common warts (vurruca vulgaris) that often present on the fingers, backs of the hands, around nails, and even under the nose.
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