4 Ways to Tell If You Have a Corn or a Wart - Warner Orthopedics (2024)

FAQs

4 Ways to Tell If You Have a Corn or a Wart - Warner Orthopedics? ›

If it hurts more when you squeeze it, then it's most likely a wart. But if it hurts when you apply direct pressure on it, then it's most likely a corn. Warts also tend to bleed a lot easier too and have a more cauliflower like appearance.

If it hurts more when you squeeze it, then it's most likely a wart. But if it hurts when you apply direct pressure on it, then it's most likely a corn. Warts also tend to bleed a lot easier too and have a more cauliflower like appearance.

The differences between calluses and warts

When you have a callus, you'll see the lines of your skin continuing in the growth. Warts do not have skin lines and appear more separate from the rest of your skin. They can also have black or red dots on the growth from the infection.

Salicylic acid helps cause the wart to gradually peel off. This medication is also used to help remove corns and calluses. This product should not be used on the face or on moles, birthmarks, warts with hair growing from them, or genital/anal warts.

The best advice we have is to take a close look at the lump on your foot, a corn will have a more canonical and circular shadow underneath the hard skin which is uncommon for a verruca. Corns will also have a more even colour scheme, looking similar at all points, whereas a verruca will not.

Corns are smaller and deeper than calluses and have a hard center surrounded by swollen skin. They can be painful when pressed. Hard corns often form on the top of the toes or the outer edge of the small toe. Soft corns tend to form between the toes.

Corns can be painful. Severe calluses or corns may hurt, become infected, harm healthy tissue, or affect your ability to walk. Treatment for corns and calluses can include trimming the skin, using padding, using medicines for the skin, or changing shoes. In some cases, surgery may help.

Calluses are hard, thick patches of skin. Compared with corns, calluses are larger and have a more irregular (more spread out) shape. You're most likely to see calluses on the bottom of your feet on the bony areas that carry your weight — your heels, big toes, the balls of your feet and along the sides of your feet.

Common Warts

They're small -- from the size of a pinhead to a pea -- and feel like rough, hard bumps. They may have black dots that look like seeds, which are really tiny blood clots. Typically they show up where the skin was broken, perhaps from biting your fingernails.

A hard corn is a compact patch of hard skin with a dense core, on top of a toe or the outside of the little toe. A soft corn is a reddened, tender area of skin. It has a thin, smooth center and is found between toes. A seed corn is a plug-like circle of dead skin, often painful, on the heel or ball of the foot.

What do podiatrists recommend to remove corns at home? ›

If a corn or callus persists or becomes painful despite your self-care efforts, medical treatments can provide relief: Trimming away excess skin. Your health care provider can pare down thickened skin or trim a large corn with a scalpel. This can be done during an office visit.

Look for a moisturizing lotion or cream with salicylic acid, ammonium lactate, or urea. These ingredients will help gradually soften hard corns and calluses.

Although corns are sometimes mistaken for similar lumps such as warts, it's easy to tell the difference between them based on their appearance. Plantar warts (verrucas), for instance, don't have a visible core of dense hard skin at the center of the lump. Instead, they often have brownish dots on them.

Corns are often painful when you press on them. They may feel tender if you wear tight shoes that rub against the bumps. Calluses usually don't cause any pain, unless there's a plantar wart underneath. Plantar warts on the balls or heels of your feet can feel tender or painful when you stand or walk.

As a hard corn is actually a callus but with a deep hard centre, once the callus part has been removed, the centre needs to be cut out. This is called “enucleation” of the centre. Removal, or enucleation, of the centre will leave a dimple or hole in the tissue of the foot.

A hard corn is a compact patch of hard skin with a dense core, on top of a toe or the outside of the little toe. A soft corn is a reddened, tender area of skin. It has a thin, smooth center and is found between toes. A seed corn is a plug-like circle of dead skin, often painful, on the heel or ball of the foot.

Plantar wart signs and symptoms include: A small, rough growth on the bottom of your foot, usually at the base of the toes or on the ball or heel. On brown and Black skin, the growth may be lighter than unaffected skin. Hard, thickened skin (callus) over a spot on the skin, where a wart has grown inward.

Don't rub, scratch, or pick at the wart becaue this could spread the virus to another part of the body or cause the wart to get infected.