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Author Topic: getting stretchmarks on my face  (Read 73556 times)

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2010, 05:39:59 PM »
Rollin;650 wrote: Could this be an infection? I forgot to properly steralize the roller before using it, but I did rince it thoroughly under very hot water as well as cleaning my face. I assume if this were a bacterial-infection then one would see typical signs of infection? Sarah Vaughter, what do you think? I'll go see my GP tomorrow but I feel so anxious now :(

 

I would be interested to see what Sarah has to say. To be honest, my roller didn't even say to sterilize it in the directions, just to rinse under hot water after using and maybe use disinfectant once every few uses. I think if you had an infection there would be obvious signs like major swelling, redness, heat, and maybe bumps.

Rollin

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #31 on: September 29, 2010, 05:45:27 AM »
LaurieR;651 wrote: I would be interested to see what Sarah has to say. To be honest, my roller didn't even say to sterilize it in the directions, just to rinse under hot water after using and maybe use disinfectant once every few uses. I think if you had an infection there would be obvious signs like major swelling, redness, heat, and maybe bumps.

 

I saw a GP today and she dismissed me having an infection. That was a relief at least. It seems that if I don't apply anything at all, then the "burning" sensation stays quite minor. In any case I was prescribed an antifungal & mild cortisone-cream, to use for a couple of days. I'll start with just using a very mild cortisone-ointment to see if that helps.

SarahVaughter

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #32 on: September 29, 2010, 06:37:24 AM »
I'm sorry but I am at a loss what this could be. It was mentioned at the top of this thread that three dermatologists had no idea either. For science's sake it would be very useful to know what you have in common. High levels of a certain orally administered vitamin for example? Especially vit. A, some people are allergic to vit. A. We have sold dermarollers (often more than one) to a few thousand people. This is the first time we hear of this. But you reported that those marks were already present in some form before rolling. So my wild guess is vitamin A allergy. You could try stopping all skin treatment and all oral supplements and see whether the situation improves over the months that follow.

About it being a bacterial infection: I don't think so. Infections color the skin red, they hurt, smell, produce pus etc. However, as we write in our instructions, it is very important to sterilize long-needled rollers after each use, not sometimes but always. Otherwise infections can indeed occur. That roller you bought from another company did not have such a recommendation? That's pretty bad :-(

Rollin

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #33 on: September 29, 2010, 07:52:45 AM »
SarahVaughter;655 wrote: I'm sorry but I am at a loss what this could be. It was mentioned at the top of this thread that three dermatologists had no idea either. For science's sake it would be very useful to know what you have in common. High levels of a certain orally administered vitamin for example? Especially vit. A, some people are allergic to vit. A. We have sold dermarollers (often more than one) to a few thousand people. This is the first time we hear of this. But you reported that those marks were already present in some form before rolling. So my wild guess is vitamin A allergy. You could try stopping all skin treatment and all oral supplements and see whether the situation improves over the months that follow.

About it being a bacterial infection: I don't think so. Infections hurt, smell, produce pus etc. However it is very important to sterilize your roller after each use, not sometimes but always. Otherwise infections can indeed occur.

 

Thank you for your reply. Yes it was present in some form before rolling, but now I have more of them + I feel a "burning" sensation on my skin, sort of like a (not too major) sunburn. I just applied some cortisone-ointment and it stings right now, but we'll see I guess. It's indeed scary trying anything fearing it will just make matters worse.

Laurier, did your skin also feel "burnish" for a while after rolling? Has it passed now that it's been over a month? I didn't feel this way just a week ago, and I rolled two weeks ago. I saw the marks appearing then too but I didn't feel a burning-sensation like this. If this cortisone-ointment doesn't help I think I'll just have to let it be and not apply anything whatsoever for a week to see if that will help...

- David

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #34 on: September 29, 2010, 01:47:26 PM »
Rollin;656 wrote: Thank you for your reply. Yes it was present in some form before rolling, but now I have more of them + I feel a "burning" sensation on my skin, sort of like a (not too major) sunburn. I just applied some cortisone-ointment and it stings right now, but we'll see I guess. It's indeed scary trying anything fearing it will just make matters worse.

Laurier, did your skin also feel "burnish" for a while after rolling? Has it passed now that it's been over a month? I didn't feel this way just a week ago, and I rolled two weeks ago. I saw the marks appearing then too but I didn't feel a burning-sensation like this. If this cortisone-ointment doesn't help I think I'll just have to let it be and not apply anything whatsoever for a week to see if that will help...

- David



David, the problem is that my skin has had this "burnish feeling" on and off for the past 5 months. Often it seems to be in response to light or topicals. When it burns it scars, so I assume it is some kind of inflammatory response that is breaking down my skin. I had the burning for about two days after rolling, and then it went away and hasn't returned in that spot.

Perhaps in your case it is continued inflammation as your skin heals. It is also possible that you are just reacting to something topically. Whichever it is, I hope you get some relief soon...

Laurie

Rollin

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #35 on: September 29, 2010, 02:55:51 PM »
LaurieR;658 wrote: David, the problem is that my skin has had this "burnish feeling" on and off for the past 5 months. Often it seems to be in response to light or topicals. When it burns it scars, so I assume it is some kind of inflammatory response that is breaking down my skin. I had the burning for about two days after rolling, and then it went away and hasn't returned in that spot.

Perhaps in your case it is continued inflammation as your skin heals. It is also possible that you are just reacting to something topically. Whichever it is, I hope you get some relief soon...

Laurie

 

Hi; yeah it might be burning because I've been trying to "battle dryness" with applying various topicals. I'll try applying this cortisone-ointment I got now on just half my face or so, and leave the other part entirely alone for 2-3 days. Then I can evaluate what works best.

I did not have much burning at all after rolling.

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #36 on: September 29, 2010, 05:51:02 PM »
Rollin;659 wrote: Hi; yeah it might be burning because I've been trying to "battle dryness" with applying various topicals. I'll try applying this cortisone-ointment I got now on just half my face or so, and leave the other part entirely alone for 2-3 days. Then I can evaluate what works best.

I did not have much burning at all after rolling.

 

Yep I have found that the less I apply the better. To be honest after rolling I didn't even apply anything to the skin for a few days in fear of inflaming it and making it worse. In hindsight I really should have put something on to combat the dryness, but I just never know when I will react...

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #37 on: September 29, 2010, 07:02:33 PM »
SarahVaughter;655 wrote: I'm sorry but I am at a loss what this could be. It was mentioned at the top of this thread that three dermatologists had no idea either. For science's sake it would be very useful to know what you have in common. High levels of a certain orally administered vitamin for example? Especially vit. A, some people are allergic to vit. A. We have sold dermarollers (often more than one) to a few thousand people. This is the first time we hear of this. But you reported that those marks were already present in some form before rolling. So my wild guess is vitamin A allergy. You could try stopping all skin treatment and all oral supplements and see whether the situation improves over the months that follow.

About it being a bacterial infection: I don't think so. Infections color the skin red, they hurt, smell, produce pus etc. However, as we write in our instructions, it is very important to sterilize long-needled rollers after each use, not sometimes but always. Otherwise infections can indeed occur. That roller you bought from another company did not have such a recommendation? That's pretty bad :-(



Thanks Sarah. I would never expect you to have an answer as to what is going on here with the scarring. I know that it was the vitamin a that I took for two weeks. It altered my skin and immune system in some way that has triggered near constant inflammation and breakdown. The dermatologists that I saw said that vitamin a couldn't have done this, but really nothing else makes sense as that was the only thing that changed in my life prior to this occurring. I don't take anything with vitamin a in it, and haven't in 5 months. I do eat a ton of veggies but that isn't an issue as beta-carotene only converts to vitamin a as needed in the body.

Yes, I am very disappointed with the company I ordered my dermaroller from. The instructions for care and use were terrible and possibly harmful. It was Scientia, and I'm sorry that I fell for the marketing. They obviously dominate the search engines.  I wish I had found your site sooner as I appreciate that you offer such detailed instructions and support and also your products are extremely affordable. I spent $100 on my 1.0 dermaroller which I have already thrown in the trash because I noticed quite a few slightly bent needles a few days after using it. I am praying that these needles bent because somehow I wasn't careful with the storage (I put it into a glass jar after using it) and weren't bent on arrival. I had no idea that these needles could bend so easily and it didn't occur to me that the needles could even arrive slightly bent from the factory. What a mess.

SarahVaughter

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #38 on: September 30, 2010, 03:59:28 AM »
I remember that a long time ago (more than ten years IIRC) that a company called Essential Organics was forced (by the FDA?) to drastically reduce the amount of vit. A in their "Mega Vites". The reason was that it was proven, also in animal tests, that large doses of vit. A could cause serious birth defects. I think that some people are very susceptible to vitamin A and that vitamin A causes wrong tissue formation somehow in those people. Vitamin A is essential for proper skin formation in all people, only perhaps in around 0.1% of people when they take too much - for them at least- it causes tissue malformation. Just a postulation of course. Everything has a cause and perhaps in some cases this is the cause. We need more data.

Self-promotion ahead.. About bent needles: All rollers are made in SE-Asia, and all rollers are relatively cheap to produce. Even the ones with LED lights, which are a useless gimmick, used to justify a ridiculous price. A roller subjected to rigorous quality control should cost not too much more than the worst rollers. The most expensive rollers are always a "scam" in that sense, because you pay through the nose for no reason. The cheapest rollers on eBay and Amazon are the bottom of the barrel, basically brand-less rollers that came from batches that failed QC sampling tests. We are not unscrupulous sales agents for any factory. We regularly buy new types of rollers, test them and sell the ones that we know will give us the least customer support issues, the most sales due to optimal price/quality factor and hence the most positive word-of-mouth. We order our rollers directly from the factories in batches made for us. They start up production for us. Rollers are not automatically produced, they are hand-assembled! So it can take one month before we receive our order of 1000+ dermarollers. And we always make it clear that we expect quality or there will be no next order. This is how we can offer good quality for a good price. You can see that we started to sell a new type of roller. We're phasing out our old types. That's because we found a slightly better one. It is in our best interest to keep researching the market for the best value for money because our business model is all about filling the niche with the best quality for the lowest price for everything we sell. We don't even waste money on advertising. A good product sells itself through word of mouth. We compete on expertise, customer support and price/quality.

All dermarollers can theoretically get a needle or two bent when they arrive at your home. Ours too. However, at least with our rollers it's so rare that when a customer says: "My roller arrived with bent needles" we simply refund them without further questions (well, occasionally we may ask for a picture, for quality assurance reasons).

The needles should definitely not bend when you place the roller head-down in a glas jar! If you don't chuck it in with great force, it should be no problem.

Again about dermarolling companies: I can only speak for ourselves when I say that I am constantly researching micro-needling. I'm preparing an article about Hyaluronic acid at the moment. I am very sure that 99% of the other companies that sell dermarollers are scammers, basically. They are just PR-agencies attached to Chinese factories, or some young "search engine optimizers" interested in "making money online". They always advertise like crazy on Google. We don't need to - we use word of mouth. I haven't seen a single respectable company out there, it's all totally disinterested money-grubbers, promising the moon. If you know an exception, let me know. Even "Dr. Roller" only tries to keep up a respectable appearance to justify their inflated price. We sell the exact same roller for half the price. They are all sales companies, not skin experts or employing anybody even remotely interested in the skin. They have advertizing folks, forum SPAM folks and sales page design folks but skin folks are ominously absent, which becomes noticeable when you ask them a difficult "skin question". When I don't know the answer, I sometimes spend half a day on the net, hunting for a cross-verified, evidence-based answer. John spent hours, some weeks ago, in figuring out how to make rounded corners on our sales page, lol.. We came to the conclusion that having a fancy-looking site is pointless. It's competency and reliability that people are interested in. So we focus our attention mainly on that. It's not easy to compete with companies who's net profit is many times ours, and who invest a large part of that into ads and web design.

The only people you can trust are dermatologists and plastic surgeons, basically. Those who offer the treatment in their clinics. There are also many amateurs out there without skin expertise - in that case you better home-roll after reading the instructions :-)

Rollin

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #39 on: September 30, 2010, 06:14:17 AM »
I would be wary of blaming vit-A, just because you took it prior to developing this. If there's anything I've learned it's that correlation usually doesn't imply causation, in other words just because your skinproblem started after taking vit-a supplements for 2 weeks, it doesnt have to mean anything.

I did not take any vit-a supplements and I got these lines on my face anyway, the multivitamin I took only contains betacarotene and not in very large doses either. I drink milk with vit A & D, but that's the milk I've been drinking all of my life.

I'm also very thankful for your help and for this page, Sarah Vaughter.

I have an appointment with a dermatologist in three weeks. I hope this problem has subsided by then.

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #40 on: September 30, 2010, 05:07:04 PM »
I don't know anymore...I had other signs of vitamin a toxicity as well around the time this started like joint and bone pain, stomach pain, kidney pain, muscle stiffness, insomnia, and my eyes dried up and I would wake up in the middle of the night with them stuck shut. This eye issue actually is just starting to get better now, but the skin is still a mess. All other symptoms subsided rather quickly. I have had my liver and kidneys checked and they are functioning well so no permanent damage there.  I would actually rather believe that this was random, because I am beating myself up over having taken the vitamin a in the first place and it leading to this mess. I took the high-dose as recommended by Linda Page (holistic practitioner) to get rid of stubborn warts that I have had for 8 years now and have been resistant to all treatments thus far. I was supposed to stick with the a for 2 months, but dropped  out at two weeks because I had a feeling something wasn't right. Perhaps if I had kept going I would be dead right now...

David, let us know how your skin is doing and what the dermatologist thinks is going on...

Rollin

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #41 on: September 30, 2010, 05:21:18 PM »
LaurieR;672 wrote: I don't know anymore...I had other signs of vitamin a toxicity as well around the time this started like joint and bone pain, stomach pain, kidney pain, muscle stiffness, insomnia, and my eyes dried up and I would wake up in the middle of the night with them stuck shut. This eye issue actually is just starting to get better now, but the skin is still a mess. All other symptoms subsided rather quickly. I have had my liver and kidneys checked and they are functioning well so no permanent damage there.  I would actually rather believe that this was random, because I am beating myself up over having taken the vitamin a in the first place and it leading to this mess. I took the high-dose as recommended by Linda Page (holistic practitioner) to get rid of stubborn warts that I have had for 8 years now and have been resistant to all treatments thus far. I was supposed to stick with the a for 2 months, but dropped  out at two weeks because I had a feeling something wasn't right. Perhaps if I had kept going I would be dead right now...

David, let us know how your skin is doing and what the dermatologist thinks is going on...

 

I'm sorry to hear you've been having such problems, and I totally hear you about not wanting to have in some sense "caused this" oneself. I keep beating myself up for rolling without first asking about this; had I started this thread before rolling and seen your answer then, I wouldn't have rolled or at least would only have rolled a very small area on my face just to check. Now my hope just lies that this subsides entirely for me very soon and that no more damage will be done, which is already kinda bad actually but what can one do... (I feel quite depressed at the moment let me tell you that; I'm just 23 I don't want to have these scars on my face). I'm just wondering why eating vit A would cause htis issue for you only on your face; if you had this issue from vit A shouldn't it happen all over your body then?

Laurier, could I perhaps get your emailadress? I'd love to ask how you are doing in maybe 6 months or a year. A) i'd like to hear if you can get rid of your problem with time, and b) If you find something that helps you get rid of your lines once this passes for you (I'm sure it will), I'd be very happy to hear that. I'm thinking dermabrasion would probably help a "normal person", in particular since all these "scars" are, albeit visible, quite on the surface and not very deep at all by the looks of it. BUT... I'm not sure I'd dare go through with anything on my skin again, feeling this way after just rolling my face once which so many people do without the slightest problem, what would happen if I got problems from something like dermabrasion? Maybe I should try to settle with what I've got and not get more depressed from failed attempts of fixing things...

My biggest fear right now is that this will continue for me, with more burning and more scars. I really really hope I'ts over in another two weeks (without more scars), and that I can see my skin look & feel more like it's old self in the months to come.

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #42 on: September 30, 2010, 06:46:31 PM »
Rollin;673 wrote: I'm sorry to hear you've been having such problems, and I totally hear you about not wanting to have in some sense "caused this" oneself. I keep beating myself up for rolling without first asking about this; had I started this thread before rolling and seen your answer then, I wouldn't have rolled or at least would only have rolled a very small area on my face just to check. Now my hope just lies that this subsides entirely for me very soon and that no more damage will be done, which is already kinda bad actually but what can one do... (I feel quite depressed at the moment let me tell you that; I'm just 23 I don't want to have these scars on my face). I'm just wondering why eating vit A would cause htis issue for you only on your face; if you had this issue from vit A shouldn't it happen all over your body then?

Laurier, could I perhaps get your emailadress? I'd love to ask how you are doing in maybe 6 months or a year. A) i'd like to hear if you can get rid of your problem with time, and b) If you find something that helps you get rid of your lines once this passes for you (I'm sure it will), I'd be very happy to hear that. I'm thinking dermabrasion would probably help a "normal person", in particular since all these "scars" are, albeit visible, quite on the surface and not very deep at all by the looks of it. BUT... I'm not sure I'd dare go through with anything on my skin again, feeling this way after just rolling my face once which so many people do without the slightest problem, what would happen if I got problems from something like dermabrasion? Maybe I should try to settle with what I've got and not get more depressed from failed attempts of fixing things...

My biggest fear right now is that this will continue for me, with more burning and more scars. I really really hope I'ts over in another two weeks (without more scars), and that I can see my skin look & feel more like it's old self in the months to come.



Hi David,

If I could advise you anything right now it's don't try to fix things yet! If I hadn't tried so many topicals trying to fix this problem in the beginning the damage probably wouldn't be half as bad as it is now. I thought about dermabrasion as well, but that is major injury to the skin, which is more inflammation, which means that most likely the scarring will increase. My scars are also really shallow, some look like very fine lines, so I have hope that they will diminish in time. My skin did go from super oily to somewhat dry after the vitamin a so that probably has a hand in making all of the tiny lines on my face look even worse...all of my pores look stretched out into lines as well, it's awful. My body skin has suffered as well, but because it is thicker and I have never applied topicals there it is not as damaged. I can tell there is a texture change though, and it looks to have lost some elasticity...

My e-mail address is angelfire5980@hotmail.com (angelfire5980@hotmail.com...keep) ...keep in touch

One more thing, most of my life I had not so great skin...pimples, some acne scars, poor texture...In March of 2008 I embarked on a 100% raw foods diet in hopes of some major transformation and I will tell you that it took time, but my skin for the first time in my life glowed. The texture was amazing, I still got pimples ocassionally but they healed quickly and without scarring...and I actually got compliments on my skin. I followed this diet until about a year ago when I started working, got lazy at home and started adding some cooked food back...no obvious issues came up, but gradually I did notice my skin falling back into its old ways. By the time this skin issue came up, I was back to eating only about 30% raw, and I was eating lots of canned coconut milk, organic grass-fed beef, cooked veggies, etc. I have thought about going back 100% raw since this started but it is hard when you are super depressed and don't want to prepare food for yourself. Well, as of two days ago I decided that it is time to give it a chance again because it can only serve to improve my skin from where it is now. Also it does improve my mood drastically. So that may be something to consider, it is rejuvenating and can heal, I will testify to that. Right now I am drinking two fresh green juices a day, eating raw chocolates enhanced with bee pollen which I make myself, lots of spirulina and chlorella, making green smoothies, raw breads, raw seed pates and lots of salads. I did this for almost two years so it is easy to get back to it but at the same time it is a lot more work. If nothing else maybe you can consider adding some fresh vegetable juice and spirulina to your diet? These two things alone can work wonders. I know the raw diet isn't appealing to everyone as I've been on both sides, but when you are in a difficult situation it can really help. People have healed from "incurable" diseases through this lifestyle. I plan to beat this one way or the other, and this is part of my strategy. This diet seems to calm inflammation and is loaded with anti-oxidants. You can even add raw animal products if you desire, but that is a bit more complicated. I just wanted to throw all of this out there because you should know that there are many ways to get out of these seemingly hopeless situations - I just wish I had been motivated sooner to do this.

I think eventually when you can handle it needling is your safest and best bet for these lines. I think your skin just wasn't ready for it this time, mine obviously wasn't. In time it will be though.

LaurieR

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #43 on: September 30, 2010, 08:16:11 PM »
Hey David,

I also wanted to add that you should really give yourself a couple more weeks before you panic about what rolling may have done to your skin. I have been noticing over the past couple of days that the area where I rolled looks like it is changing and what looked like new scars are softening a bit. It has been exactly a month since I rolled so maybe the collagen is still remodeling and in the end the results will be decent. There is no doubt that we have a scarring problem, but when I first rolled my skin looked terrible and now that I look things are blending in a bit better. Maybe time is the only answer with this

SarahVaughter

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getting stretchmarks on my face
« Reply #44 on: October 03, 2010, 09:47:59 AM »
LaurieR;672 wrote: I don't know anymore...I had other signs of vitamin a toxicity as well  around the time this started like joint and bone pain, stomach pain,  kidney pain, muscle stiffness, insomnia, and my eyes dried up and I  would wake up in the middle of the night with them stuck shut. This eye  issue actually is just starting to get better now, but the skin is still  a mess. All other symptoms subsided rather quickly. I have had my liver  and kidneys checked and they are functioning well so no permanent  damage there.  I would actually rather believe that this was random,  because I am beating myself up over having taken the vitamin a in the  first place and it leading to this mess. I took the high-dose as  recommended by Linda Page (holistic practitioner) to get rid of stubborn  warts that I have had for 8 years now and have been resistant to all  treatments thus far. I was supposed to stick with the a for 2 months,  but dropped  out at two weeks because I had a feeling something wasn't  right. Perhaps if I had kept going I would be dead right now...  


     Taking high oral doses of vit. A is dangerous because vit. A accumulates in the body. Excessive intake manifests itself amongst other things by skin dryness/peeling and skin rash.

   

  Taking too much vit. A can be fatal. It happened to Scott's polar expedition, who ate too much polar bear liver. But adverse effects of vit. A occur much sooner, and likely even sooner in sensitive individuals. The problem with vit. A is a cumulative toxin and that its elimination takes months. It is an important vitamin for a healthy skin, but when you take too much, it totally destroys the skin. Scott lost the soles of his feet, his nails fell off and finally he turned blind - all due to vitamin A poisoning. Yes, his skin fell off completely. Also the skin of his hands. One day he took off his gloves and he stared at raw meat. The skin of his fingers remained inside the gloves.

If any strange skin effects occur and vit. A has been supplemented orally, then vit. A sensitivity should be the first and foremost suspicion.

Vitamin A is not going to make your warts disappear either.

  I had problems with reccurring warts on my feet soles. I solved it by applying one drop of 16% sulfuric acid every day.  I applied it with a toothpick. Just to the wart itself, not to the skin around it.  After a while it destroyed the wart. I continued for a while with this remedy, to destroy any deep residues. The wart hasn’t reappeared in ten years.  You can buy 16% sulfuric acid on Internet but be careful with it..