The Science of Skin Tags and Warts: Causes and Safe Clinical Removal

Patients frequently lump skin tags and warts together as “those little growths,” but at our Dublin, Limerick and London clinics we're careful to treat them as the genuinely different conditions they are. One is a harmless, friction-related nuisance; the other is a viral infection that, in adults especially, can be surprisingly stubborn to eradicate. Understanding which one you're actually dealing with changes both the treatment and how seriously it needs to be taken.

Skin Tags: Harmless, Friction-Related Growths

Skin tags are benign, entirely harmless growths of skin that most commonly develop where skin repeatedly rubs against skin, or against clothing. This is exactly why they cluster in specific areas: the underarms, under the breasts, the groin, and the neck, all places with regular friction and, in some cases, more sweating. They're also very commonly seen for the first time during pregnancy, when hormonal changes and weight gain both contribute to their development. Beyond being a cosmetic nuisance, skin tags carry no health risk whatsoever — removing one is purely a matter of preference, not necessity.

We remove skin tags safely using either cryotherapy, which freezes the tag with liquid nitrogen until it falls away, or electrosurgery, which uses a fine electrical current to remove the tag at its base. Both are quick, well-tolerated in-clinic procedures with minimal downtime, chosen based on the size and location of the tag.

Warts: A Completely Different, Viral Story

Warts are an entirely different matter. They're caused by the human papillomavirus, HPV, which infects skin cells and causes them to grow in the characteristic rough, raised pattern we recognise as a wart. Different strains of HPV cause different types of wart in different locations — common warts on the hands, plantar warts (verrucas) on the soles of the feet, and genital warts in the genital area, each caused by a different subset of HPV strains.

Genital warts, in particular, cause considerable concern in adults, understandably so, given their location and their association with a sexually transmitted virus. This is precisely why we'd encourage anyone with a new genital lesion to be assessed properly rather than guess or self-treat, both to confirm the diagnosis and to discuss the implications with a doctor directly.

Prevention First: Vaccination in Children

Before treatment is even a consideration, prevention deserves a mention: we'd strongly encourage parents to ensure their children receive the HPV vaccine. It's one of the most effective preventive measures available against several HPV strains, including those responsible for genital warts and, separately, several HPV-related cancers, and vaccinating before exposure is always more effective than treating an infection after the fact.

Why Children's Warts Often Resolve on Their Own

For warts that do appear in children, it's genuinely reassuring to know that, while they can be treated, they will generally disappear naturally over time as a child's immune system matures and eventually clears the virus itself. This means treatment in children is often a matter of comfort and preference rather than urgency, and a more conservative, patient approach is often entirely reasonable.

Why Adult Warts Are Far More Stubborn

Adult warts are a different challenge entirely, and considerably more difficult to treat than the equivalent lesion in a child. By adulthood, the immune system's relationship with an established HPV infection has often settled into a kind of tolerance, meaning the body isn't clearing the virus the way a child's developing immune system often will. Over-the-counter treatments rarely make a meaningful difference against this. Cryotherapy can work for some adult warts, but success is inconsistent, and by the time many patients reach our clinics, cryotherapy alone has already been tried and hasn't resolved the problem.

Plantar warts, or verrucas, deserve a particular mention, since they are notoriously among the most difficult warts to treat. Being on a weight-bearing surface, under thickened skin, and often driven deep into the tissue by the pressure of walking, they resist standard treatment far more stubbornly than a wart on the hand or elsewhere on the body.

Why We Use Vascular Lasers for Stubborn Warts

For the more resistant warts and verrucas that reach us after cryotherapy or other approaches haven't worked, we typically move to vascular laser treatment. Rather than freezing or physically destroying the wart directly, this approach targets and eliminates the small blood vessels supplying the wart with blood, effectively cutting off its supply line. Without a blood supply, the infected tissue can no longer sustain itself and the wart resolves. This is often considerably more effective than repeated cryotherapy for genuinely stubborn cases, and it's the escalation we reach for specifically when more conservative approaches haven't achieved clearance.

Why Leaving Warts Untreated Is a Genuine Risk

Left untreated, warts don't simply sit still. They can multiply, becoming more numerous and, particularly on weight-bearing areas like the sole of the foot, genuinely painful. They're also contagious: the virus can spread to other parts of your own body through touch, and to other people who share a shower, changing room floor or swimming pool with you. This is part of why we take warts and verrucas in adults seriously rather than treating them as a purely cosmetic issue — left alone, they're a genuine, spreading problem, not a static one.

It's also worth knowing that warts appearing elsewhere on the face or body in adults can be just as difficult to clear as plantar warts, and frequently need a doctor's input rather than resolving with home treatment alone.

Supporting Treatment: Duct Tape and Zinc

Alongside clinical treatment, we often recommend two simple supportive measures: occlusion with ordinary duct tape over the wart, which appears to provoke a local immune response against the virus, and zinc supplementation, which supports overall immune function and may help the body mount a more effective response against the underlying infection. Neither replaces proper clinical treatment for an established, stubborn wart, but both are genuinely useful adjuncts alongside it.

Getting the Right Assessment

If you're dealing with a growth you're unsure about, whether it's a nuisance skin tag or a wart that's resisted treatment, it's worth having it properly assessed rather than guessing or persisting with over-the-counter products that rarely work for adults. Book a consultation with one of our dermatologists across Dublin, Limerick, or London. We take warts and verrucas in adults seriously, precisely because we know how genuinely difficult they can be to eradicate once established, and we'll build a treatment plan suited to exactly what you're dealing with.