In the medical world, the bottom of your foot is known as the plantar surface. Warts that materialize on the soles of feet are known as plantar warts. The plantar wart is unique because the skin on the bottom of your foot is 20 times thicker than anywhere else on the body. Are Plantar Warts Painful?
For most folks, plantar warts are a painful experience. Think about how often pressure is applied to the bottom of your feet on a daily basis. Whenever you walk or perform activities that require you to stand, right? Well now imagine going about these everyday tasks with a hard growth on the bottom of your foot. Every action that involves placing weight on your feet causes the wart to press against sensitive nerves under the skin. Those nerves are what signal to your brain that you’re in pain. While plantar warts only grow within that top layer of skin, this pain can make them feel like they’ve invaded even deeper.
Your body is pretty smart, so it responds to this painful pressure by producing a protective layer of skin over the plantar wart. This is called a callus and it doesn’t necessarily relieve the painful symptoms the wart causes. After all, the wart is still lingering underneath that layer of skin. Removing the plantar wart is usually the only course of action to fully reduce pain.
While many types of warts don’t require medical attention, unless removal is requested for cosmetic reasons, plantar warts are different. Painful walking necessitates removal of plantar warts for many.
