Plantar Wart or Corn? Same Gross Problem, Same Surprisingly Easy Fix

I had a plantar wart on my foot. Or so I thought. I tried a drugstore cure to help pull out the plantar wart root at home, as one does. Only it wasn't a plantar wart - it was a corn.  Luckily the treatment is exactly the same for both. Here's what to expect from using a Salicylic acid patch for either of these problems like I did.

Plantar warts and corns don’t just look similar — for centuries, they were treated the exact same way by barbers and field medics: with a blade, a prayer, and a shot of brandy.

Salicylic acid is less dramatic. But also less likely to result in a peg leg.

So the plan to terminate this little toe lump began. I'm not new to conducting medical experiments on myself. There was the frozen yogurt tampon treatment for yeast infections for example. Or the continuously drinking water for a bladder infection treatment. Both are based on science and both work surprisingly well.

So last week when I noticed a pain at the ball of my big toe I knew right away what I was dealing with.

A corn.

Whether you’re dealing with a plantar wart or a foot corn, the process is the same — salicylic acid softens the tough skin so you can remove the core (or root) painlessly.

🧴 Plantar Wart & Corn Removal FAQs

What's the difference between a plantar wart and a corn?
A wart is caused by a virus (HPV); a corn is a pressure-related thickening of skin. Both can be removed the same way using salicylic acid at home.

Will this home treatment work for corns too?
Yes. Salicylic acid softens the built-up skin, letting you remove the dense core of a corn much like the root of a plantar wart.

How long does it take?
1–2 weeks.

Can I use this on the bottom of my foot or toes?
Yes — the kits work on both. For corns on toes, the circular bandaids work better than flat ones.

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I remember being very young, maybe 7 or 8 and having a plantar wart.  It was on the bottom of my foot and had to be cut out by my doctor. This was back in the day when doctors actually doctored. Mine even knew how to clean out ear wax and give stitches. 

I wasn't looking forward to having a doctor dig a hole out of my foot so like a sensible person, I tried to dig a hole out of my foot myself. 

Not with a knife, but with Salicylic acid, the active ingredient that gets rid of warts by killing the skin. It's a little more scientific than that but that's the gist of it. And it's much less terrifying than pulling out a wart with tweezers or a pin.

How to Get Rid of Plantar Warts

1. Buy a wart removal kit. They're all basically the same. My pharmacist recommended the cheapest one on the shelf because it came with a tiny Salicylic pad and bandaids which would work well for the bizarre "between my toes" plantar wart.
2. Remove the wart pads from the kit and peel one off. Put it directly over your (gross) wart and stick it down.
3. Cover your Salicylic pad with the provided bandaid. It'll either be a regular oblong bandaid or a round, soft pad bandaid.
4. Replace the pad and bandaid every 2 days until your skin has died and comes off naturally. You may need to pull the skin a bit, pulling the root of the wart with or corn it!  Gross.  Yet weirdly satisfying. But mainly gross.

Don't try to just hack away at your plantar wart or corn with a pumice stone, it won't get rid of it. You have to treat it, and a kit cure actually works to remove plantar warts.  Which was shocking to me, I don't mind telling you.

Don't be alarmed if your wart fell off and left a hole. That's what's supposed to happen.

Pulling out root with tweezers

After treatment if the wart doesn't come out with you can now proceed with a set of tweezers. The wart pad will have deadened the wart root, so you'll be able to easily pull it out with a set of tweezers. For really precision tweezing, buy tick remover tweezers!

What causes plantar warts

• Plantar warts are actually from a viral infection. They develop when cuts or cracks on the bottom of your feet come into contact with human papillomavirus (HPV.) The virus enters your body through the cut or crack.

• There are more than 100 strains of HPV with only a few of them causing plantar warts on your feet. Other types of the virus will only cause warts on the hands, mouth or ... private parts.

• You're more prone to a warts if you have a weakened immune system.

Identifying a plantar wart

• You can identify a plantar wart aka verruca by the tiny circle like a pinhead with a minuscule black dot in the centre. It isn't the wart that causes pain, it's the callous that builds up around it.

• The typical signs and symptoms are pain at the area of a circle like hard callous and of course what makes them unique is that they grow inward so you won't see the typical raised bump typical of other warts.

The Salicylic acid pad placed over the ... let's call it a beauty mark from now on ... I just feel better about it that way.

I used a Dr. Scholl's kit with clear bandaids, great for wrapping around a toe. It works just as well for corn removal at home too. The same salicylic acid softens that thickened skin so you can gently remove the built-up core over time.

There's also a LOT of talk on the Internet about people wrapping their feet in duct tape to get rid of plantar warts.  I decided I wasn't so poor that I had to Red Green my way out of a wart. I could spend the $10 on medicine.

Alternative methods

A 2010 scientific study on plantar wart treatment proved that they are equally likely to disappear within 13 weeks using any of these 3 methods:

1. Salicylic acid (like you see me using here)
2. Cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen)
3. Ignoring it

That's right. Warts, but only a plantar wart specifically, is as likely to go be gone in 13 weeks whether you use an acid patch, liquid nitrogen or do nothing at all.

Also, as far as alternative methods go, these are great substitutes for shaving cream if you ever run out.

You just stick the bandaid down and then pull away the wrapping.

You can't see it at all. NO one will know you're treating ..... a beauty mark.

Results

After a few days your skin turns white and eventually just pulls away with your body, the root of the plantar wart or corn attached.  You're welcome for not including that photo.

What you're left with is a small hole where the dead skin has pulled out, and some pinkish skin underneath. It all fills in by itself within a few days in that magical way skin works. 

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Because it regenerates itself when we cut ourselves wide open, we forgive skin for also drying, sagging, wrinkling and flapping.

Do I recommend these cheap treatments for corns or a plantar wart?  Yes. 

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