It is common to have hard areas of skin on the sole of the foot that can be painful with pressure from standing and walking. However, many people are often confused as to whether the hard area is simply a corn or a wart. While it may not seem like it, there is a huge difference between the two and the treatment is different too. This article looks at these differences.

Corns, calluses, and warts share the same type of tissue on their surface surface and can often be mistaken for each other. Underneath, there is a big difference in the type of tissue that is under a corn / callus and the type that is under a wart. In summary, a corn or callus is thickened tissue of the top layer of compressed skin that thickens in response to pressure. This pressure can come externally, such as a poorly fitting shoe, or internally, a bone that is so prominent due to a foot or toe deformity. This thick tissue is called hyperkeratosis, and a callus simply describes a hyperkeratosis on the toes, while a callus is a hyperkeratosis found on the bottom or sides of the foot.

A wart is something else entirely. While a wart can develop from corns or calluses, it can also form on the skin where there is not excessive pressure, such as in the crease of the toes. A wart is the tissue that forms when the skin becomes infected with a virus. This virus can be contracted by stepping on a skin cell that contains another person’s virus, and is often spread in public places where people are barefoot, such as public showers, swimming pools, and locker rooms. The virus signals the skin to grow outward with tiny ridges, which constrict the capillary blood vessels as they grow, resulting in the tiny black dots that people incorrectly call “seeds” inside the wart. The wart can grow quickly, as well as spread new warts to the surrounding area. The tissue can also bleed on a spot if it is shaved or snagged, and in some cases small cauliflower-shaped growths can be seen blooming from the top of the wart.

There are several key differences in identifying whether a skin lesion is a corn or a wart. Most cases have these differences, although there are some cases where the differences are subtle and difficult to tell without looking at the tissue under a microscope. These differences include pain, appearance of skin lines, surface appearance, and growth rate.

Bread:

Corns, corns, and wart tissue can be painful with pressure. However, the nature of this pain may be slightly different when the foot is examined. In general, when one pushes a corn or callus, it hurts a bit, while squeezing the tissue does not cause any pain. A wart will generally be less painful under direct pressure, but squeezing it will cause more discomfort. While this difference is often the case, there are corns that can be sensitive to the squeeze and warts that are more painful under direct pressure.

Skin line appearance:

The lines on the skin on the feet are similar to the lines on the skin or fingerprints on the hands. These lines are grooves of natural tension on the surface of the skin. A corn will not push these lines aside, while a wart will create a break in skin lines like a ripple around the wart. This usually cannot be seen until the corn or wart is shaved off, but it is a pretty good indicator of the difference between the two.

Surface appearance:

The surface of a corn and a wart is usually somewhat different. Corn and callus tissue tends to be very hard and generally smooth, although some cracks may appear on the surface with rough contours. Some corns and calluses may have dried blood below the surface if the pressure is high enough, but it is usually more spread out in clumps. Warts, on the other hand, often have a bumpy, uneven surface that can appear striated, wavy, or cauliflower-like. The wart may protrude from the surface of the skin in an uneven manner as opposed to the smooth mound of a callus, and it will have the aforementioned dead capillaries that look like scattered little black dots. Some warts actually have wet, loose tissue rather than the top of a hard corn, and sometimes it may appear that there is a stalk penetrating the skin.

Growth rate:

Corns and calluses are the body’s natural response to pressure and subsequently grow slowly over time in response to continuous pressure from walking or irritation from a shoe. Warts, due to the fact that they are caused by an infection, can develop overnight. The wart itself can grow slowly over time or it can expand and spread quickly. Regardless, the appearance of the wart is generally quick compared to the callus.

As mentioned above, these differences are not always present, and corns and warts can sometimes appear similar. In these cases, a biopsy is needed to determine the actual tissue type, as the treatment is very different between the two. Corns and calluses are long-term skin lesions that can be reduced by regular filing or professional shaving, as well as pressure reduction by wearing better-fitting shoes or using special shoe inserts to reduce pressure on the sole of the foot. foot is the callus is located there. Contrary to popular belief, corns and calluses cannot be permanently cut, as the skin below the injury is completely normal and simply responds to pressure. Removing the tissue will only result in another corn or callus that will develop again after the skin heals. The underlying pressure point of the bone directly below must be surgically treated to permanently remove the callus, and this requires shaving off the prominent bone or correcting any bone deformities present.

Warts cannot be treated in this way because the cause is a virus. The body must be stimulated to develop an immune response to the virus to destroy it, and only then will the wart disappear. This is usually done with mild chemical irritants applied to the skin on a regular basis to boost the immune system and stimulate it to create an antibody to kill the virus. Surgery to remove the wart is sometimes successful in providing long-lasting treatment, although some virus cells that have not yet formed an external wart may still remain on the surrounding skin and lead to a new wart over time.

While it can sometimes be confusing whether a hard area of ​​skin is a corn or wart, there are differences that can help make identification possible and, as you can see from the description above, correct identification is the key to ensuring this. . it is treated appropriately.