Most people will develop a wart at least once in their lifetime. Although there are different types of warts, those that develop on the soles of your feet and toes are called plantar warts.
Typically, warts are treated using traditional treatment methods such as peeling acids, freezing, surgical removal, or laser destruction. Patients often abandon these treatments because they are just too painful, or the warts come back—and we honestly can’t blame them!
Thankfully, there is a new technology available that can treat warts with much less discomfort and hassle, and actually provides a long-term solution.
It’s called SWIFT therapy. And with it, the wart truly stops here!
To better understand what makes SWIFT such an outstanding treatment compared to more traditional methods, it helps to know what makes warts so difficult to get rid of in the first place.
How Plantar Warts Work, and What They Look Like
Plantar warts are the result of a highly contagious viral infection of the skin—in this case, the invader is the human papillomavirus (HPV).
The virus enters the skin when we walk barefoot in common areas such as pools, gyms, spas, locker rooms, and hotel rooms. Any small crack, injury, or weakness in the surface of the skin is a viable entry point, whether you can see it or not.
Once inside, the virus sets up home and causes the rough, grainy lesions you are all too familiar with. Many plantar warts are mistaken for calluses, but a magnified inspection can show how warts interrupt the normal skin lines of the feet. You may also see tiny black dots, which represent capillaries or blood vessels providing nutrients for the wart.
If a virus causes the warts, can our immune system get rid of it? Potentially, yes! However, HPV tends to reside in the upper layers of the skin where it is not recognized by our immune system, allowing it to grow and spread unchecked. This is the reason the virus is so difficult to treat with traditional methods.
SWIFT, however, has a clever way of getting around this problem.
How SWIFT Works, and What It Looks Like
During SWIFT treatment, a device is used to focus low-power microwave energy directly into the wart.
These microwaves cause damage to the virus–infected cells. These cells respond by releasing Heat Shock Proteins that your immune system picks up on, rushing to the scene. Upon arrival, they identify HPV for the foreign invader that it is and begin attacking it appropriately.
It’s kind of a sneaky way to get your body to attack your warts—but they were being the sneaky ones to begin with!
And here’s the best part: once the warts clear, you are immune from contracting HPV again! The chance of ever having plantar warts again is less than 1%.
SWIFT treatment is usually conducted over a series of 3 sessions for adults or 2 sessions for children, each held 4 weeks apart. Children have a stronger immune system and this causes a quicker removal of the warts.
When you come in, we will apply the SWIFT device for about 2 seconds per wart and repeat 5 times in a row. The overall length of a SWIFT treatment session will depend on how widespread your warts are, but you can expect around 10 minutes.
