Eye warts are growths that develop on the skin around the eye and on the eyelid as a result of an infection with human papillomavirus. The first step in treating eye warts may be seeing a doctor and getting his advice for doing so. You can then choose to treat the warts at home with an over-the-counter (OTC) treatment that contains salicylic acid or with a home remedy such as garlic or tea tree oil. If these treatments do not work or the warts are large and bothersome, you could then consider medical treatments, such as removal via laser or liquid nitrogen.
Before treating eye warts on your own, you may do well to seek the evaluation of a doctor. A medical professional can provide a definite diagnosis, making sure you don’t mistakenly treat yourself for warts when you actually have a different type of medical condition. He can also recommend OTC medications or prescribe medications that can help you get rid of the warts as quickly as possible. Additionally, he can tell you how to avoid getting wart medications in your eye and offer steps to take if you accidentally do get the medication in your eye.
OTC remedies can prove effective for treating eye warts. Medications that contain salicylic acid are commonly available to get rid of these growths. With this type of treatment, you apply the salicylic acid each day, removing the dead skin as necessary. Eventually, this will get rid of the wart. It is important to keep in mind that warts can prove stubborn and take a long time to go away. As such, you could spend weeks or months treating these growths and waiting for them to disappear.
Some people use home remedies to treat eye warts. For example, you could try rubbing fresh garlic on the growths or applying tea tree, lemon balm, or dandelion oil to the affected area. Some people also report that apple cider vinegar is a good treatment for warts. While you can try alternative remedies when you want to treat the warts, it’s important to remember that such treatments are not proven effective. As such, you may do well to switch to another treatment option if a home remedy seems ineffective after a reasonable amount of time. If the treatments you attempt cause significant irritation, you may also benefit from seeing a doctor.
Sometimes, OTC and home remedies are not enough to successfully treat eye warts. In that case, you may need to see a skin doctor for laser treatments or cryotherapy, which involves using liquid nitrogen to freeze off the warts. You may also consider having minor surgery to remove them.