SWIFT Wart Treatment

Ask the team of foot and ankle specialists at Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa how to:

"Say Goodbye to Planter Warts for Good Without Surgery, Burning, Cutting, or Freezing"

We are excited to share this information on warts with all of you! Honestly, in our clinic, Dr. Mindi Dayton used to tell patients, “I hate treating warts. I like to be able to fix things and be confident in the success of the treatment and unfortunately with warts we just don’t have a lot of great options”. BUT NOT ANYMORE! In this eBook we’ll share more on what plantar warts (verruca) are and how you can move on from troublesome, persistent verruca, for good.

After treating feet, stubborn warts, and the pain accompanying them, the doctors at Foot and Ankle Center of Iowa have learned a few things that can benefit you. Our clinic offers some of the quickest, pain-free techniques.

Let’s start at the beginning and examine what plantar warts are from their “root” and then talk about your options for treatment.

Our goal is to get you back being active and free from the pain and embarrassment of your verruca relatively quick and pain free! Let’s get you ready for next sandal season!

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A Little About Plantar Warts

Plantar Warts: What You Need to Know

Plantar warts—also known as verruca—are stubborn, often painful growths that can be incredibly persistent and frustrating to manage. These common lesions appear on the bottom (plantar surface) of the foot and around the toes.

While it’s true that many plantar warts eventually go away on their own, waiting it out can be risky. Why? Because plantar warts are contagious. Left untreated, they can spread—not only to other parts of your foot, but also to others around you. What may begin as a single wart can quickly multiply, turning a minor nuisance into a bigger problem.

Why Early Treatment Matters

Warts are caused by a strain of the human papillomavirus (HPV), which thrives in warm, moist environments—think locker rooms, public showers, and swimming pools. People of all ages can develop warts, but they’re especially common in children, those with weakened immune systems, and anyone who frequently goes barefoot in public places.

At the Foot and Ankle Center of Iowa, we typically recommend treating plantar warts proactively rather than waiting for them to resolve. Not only does treatment reduce the risk of spreading, it also relieves discomfort and helps you return to normal activities faster.

What Does a Plantar Wart Look Like?

Plantar warts often appear as small, grainy lesions on the sole of the foot or between the toes. A hallmark sign is a thickened layer of skin—or callus—over the wart. This forms due to pressure and friction from walking, which ironically increases discomfort in the affected area.

Look closely and you may notice tiny black dots within the wart. These are small, clotted blood vessels (capillaries) that feed the lesion. Many patients report tenderness or sharp pain when walking or standing.

Don’t Wait for Warts to Worsen

Although plantar warts can go away without treatment, they often linger for months—or even years—causing pain and potentially spreading. Rather than letting them disrupt your daily life, we encourage early evaluation and care.

At Foot and Ankle Center of Iowa, we offer state-of-the-art treatments that are tailored to your needs, whether you're dealing with a single stubborn wart or multiple lesions. Our goal is to provide you with fast relief and long-term results.

The Science Behind Your Warts (Verruca)

Why Are Plantar Warts So Difficult to Treat?

If you think back to your middle school science class, you might remember this key difference: bacteria can be treated with medications like antibiotics, but viruses are a different story. Your body’s immune system must fight viruses off by producing antibodies. These antibodies can’t be taken in pill form—they must be created by your own immune response.

Vaccines, such as the annual flu shot, can help prepare your immune system to recognize and fight certain viruses. However, once you’re infected, it’s your body that must do the work to eliminate the virus entirely.

Warts and the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)

Warts are caused by a virus—the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). When you develop a plantar wart (also called a verruca), what you're seeing is actually a symptom of the virus living in your skin. The wart contains viral tissue and is your body’s physical response to the infection.

Treating the wart helps manage the visible and painful symptoms, but eliminating the virus entirely requires your immune system to recognize and attack the underlying HPV. Until your body develops immunity by creating antibodies to the virus, there’s always a chance the warts will return.

Why Is HPV So Hard to Defeat?

One of the reasons plantar warts are so persistent is because HPV is a stealthy virus. It often goes undetected by the immune system—especially when it’s hiding in the thick skin of the feet, which is up to five times thicker than skin elsewhere on the body. This makes it harder for your immune cells to recognize and respond to the infection. This biological camouflage explains why plantar warts are notoriously difficult to treat and why they tend to come back. Your immune system can’t fight what it can’t see.

Traditional Treatments vs. Immune-Based Solutions

Historically, treatment options for plantar warts focused on destroying the wart tissue through aggressive methods such as freezing (cryotherapy) or burning (cautery). While these methods can be effective in the short term, they often fail to address the underlying virus—leading to recurrence and, for many patients, a frustrating game of “whack-a-mole” with their own feet.

Let’s be honest: nobody wants to play that game with their health.

A Better Approach: Stimulating Your Immune System

At Foot and Ankle Center of Iowa, we believe in targeting the root cause—not just the symptom. That’s why we offer microwave therapy, a cutting-edge treatment designed to stimulate your immune system and help your body recognize and eliminate the HPV virus from within. From both clinical research and our own patient experiences, we’ve found microwave therapy to be one of the most effective and least painful options available today. It offers real hope for long-term resolution of stubborn plantar warts.

Traditional Verruca Treatments

Common Plantar Wart Treatments—and Their Limitations
When it comes to treating plantar warts (verruca), patients are often met with a variety of options—each with its own drawbacks. Here’s a look at the most common treatments and why many fall short of delivering lasting relief.

Cryotherapy (Freezing): This treatment involves applying liquid nitrogen to freeze the wart in an attempt to destroy the virus. While widely used, it is often painful and less effective on the thick skin found on the soles of the feet. The outcome? Blistering is common, but wart eradication is not. For many, the discomfort outweighs the benefits.

Chemical Treatments: These treatments use topical acids or toxic agents to “burn” off the wart. Unfortunately, side effects are common—ranging from pain to wound care requirements. Keeping the area dry becomes a challenge, turning simple tasks like showering or swimming into logistical hurdles.

Surgical Excision: Surgical removal is considered a last resort due to its invasive nature. It involves cutting into the skin deeply enough to excise not only the wart but also the infected tissue beneath. While it can be effective, it comes with significant downtime, post-operative pain, and a risk of scarring that may end up being more problematic than the wart itself.

Over-the-Counter (OTC) Products: Pharmacies are filled with OTC wart treatments, but their effectiveness is limited—especially for plantar warts. These products often irritate the surrounding skin more than the wart itself and rarely address the root cause, sometimes even increasing the risk of viral spread due to tissue trauma.

Cantharidin: This treatment, derived from blister beetle extract, is applied directly to the wart to create a blister that disrupts blood flow to the lesion. While it can be effective after multiple applications, it is notoriously painful and inconvenient, with blistering and swelling lasting up to a week.

Laser Therapy: Pulse dye lasers aim to shut down the wart’s blood supply by targeting its tiny capillaries. This method requires several treatments spaced weeks apart and often causes discomfort. Scarring is a known risk—and can be more bothersome than the original wart.

So, What Can You Do?
The truth is, none of these conventional methods consistently treat the root cause of the wart—the human papilloma virus (HPV). That’s why, at Foot and Ankle Center of Iowa, we’ve adopted a more advanced approach: microwave therapy. This innovative, non-invasive treatment stimulates your body’s immune system to recognize and attack the virus directly—offering long-term relief, not just temporary fixes.

A New Way To Tackle Warts

At Foot & Ankle Center of Iowa, we offer an advanced in-clinic treatment for warts using microwave technology. This innovative approach delivers a low-dose microwave “zap” to the wart, helping to expose the stealthy HPV virus to your body’s immune system—so it can finally recognize and fight the virus that causes the wart.

Most patients require just three treatments for complete resolution. Best of all, this method avoids the pain, blistering, scarring, and downtime often associated with more destructive—and less effective—wart treatments.

No scalpels | No needles | No chemical and accompanying burning and scarring | No bandages and dressings | No activity restriction required

More About How Swift Works

Why Swift Microwave Therapy Is a Breakthrough in Wart Treatment

Traditional wart treatments focus on destroying the visible wart caused by one of more than 200 strains of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). However, these treatments often fail to eliminate the virus itself—leading to high recurrence rates.

Swift Microwave Therapy takes a different, more effective approach. Instead of targeting just the wart, Swift targets the underlying HPV virus. The microwave energy tags and reveals the hidden virus to your immune system, stimulating a natural, long-term healing response.

How Swift Works

The Swift system uses a handheld microwave applicator to deliver targeted energy directly into the wart tissue. This energy:

-Reveals the hard-to-detect virus to your immune system

-Triggers an immediate immune response

-Helps your body eliminate both the wart and the viral source

During each treatment session, your foot and ankle specialist will apply the Swift wand to the affected area five times for two seconds each, using 8–10 watts of energy. Once the treatment is complete, you're free to go about your day—with no blisters, open wounds, or dressings required.

Treatment Timeline

Most patients require 2 to 3 treatment sessions, depending on the severity and number of warts. A follow-up consultation three months after your final treatment ensures that the wart has resolved completely and no further sessions are needed.

Long-Term Success and Recurrence Rates

Unlike traditional methods—which have a recurrence rate of up to 50%—Swift offers lasting results by helping your body build immunity to HPV. In fact, studies show that patients treated with Swift have a success rate over 80% and a recurrence rate of less than 1%.

While no treatment can guarantee success for every individual, Swift’s success rate is significantly higher than any other wart treatment currently available. By harnessing your immune system, Swift offers not only relief—but the potential for permanent resolution.