The soles or the bottom of the feet are called plantar surfaces and plantar warts are the tough, horny growths that develop on them. Because these areas are weight bearing and responsible for moving the human body from place to place, the warts that form on the plantar surfaces get forced into the skin which makes them particularly painful.

Like all warts, they are harmless growths which will probably go away by themselves or with minimal treatment, but their location and the amount of pain involved makes them difficult to ignore. At the onset, they should be treated immediately by a doctor, or if you’ve had experience, re-use the treatment that was successful in the past. Letting them go without treatment can cause painful infections in the soles of your feet, which may require surgery to correct.

Plantar warts that grow together in a cluster are called mosaic warts, as they resemble artistic creations. Because the feet are subject to a lot of bruising they are a common source of breaks or other openings in the skin. Dry, flaky, cracked skin on the bottom of your feet offers the human pappilloma virus (HPV) a perfect opportunity to invade and find a new home. Communal showers or public swimming pools are hotbeds of HPV infection so the best advice you could possibly receive if you attend any of these areas is to wear water shoes at all times, even in the shower.

Failing that, coat your feet with a barrier cream that might, at the very least, provide some protection for a homeless HPV. Epidemics of plantar warts sometimes break out amongst members of the same sports team or teams when an infection spreads through the bathroom areas where athletes bathe. Adults generally have an immunity to plantar warts built up over years of small exposures, which makes the common victims of this type of warts, children.