Jotting Down 1. Flat Warts (Prologue)

Hello! I’m a beginner blogger writing my first blog post. (To make the post a little shorter and feel less awkward, I’ll omit honorifics from here on.)

I’m a K office worker who just mechanically shuttles between commuting, home, and work, and on days off I don’t even step out of bed.

Until a few years ago, I think I had motivation and passion for what I did, and I also enjoyed various hobbies.

But when I look back at myself now, I’ve been worn down by everyday life and drained so quickly by energy issues... I’ve become someone whose only happiness is rolling around on the floor.

So I started this blog in hopes of finding small joys and regaining motivation. And so, the topic of the long-awaited first blog post is.... flat warts.

I’m a dermatologist. So I often see people who come in thinking they have tiny acne bumps or skin tags, only to be diagnosed with flat warts in the exam room. From the patient’s perspective, it’s probably not easy to tell apart lesions that all look similar. Unlike moles, skin tags, and milia, flat warts are caused by a viral infection, so the longer detection and treatment are delayed, the more they spread. The longer treatment is delayed, the more the laser cost, recovery time, and downtime increase. That’s why I wanted to share information so that people can suspect flat warts early and get treatment quickly, and that’s why flat warts became the topic of my first post.

*Is it okay to just leave flat warts alone?

Flat warts themselves do not cause malignant changes or seriously harm your health. But over time, the number increases, and since they especially tend to appear on the face and neck, they affect skin tone and texture.

• Brown flat warts → look like blemishes and make the skin tone appear dull

• Skin-colored/white flat warts → when they get larger, they create a bumpy texture and look uneven depending on the direction of the light

So even people who visit the clinic for the purpose of improving pigmentation or skin texture are often very satisfied when flat warts are removed in addition to the original treatment, because the skin tone and texture become much more even. (This also means that there are surprisingly many people who have flat warts on the face and neck. When looking closely at the face for a procedure, it actually seems rare to meet someone who has no flat warts at all.)

Also, apart from cosmetic purposes, my flat warts can be transmitted to people who share daily items with me and have close contact with me. No one would want to pass a viral infection on to their loved ones.

For these reasons, I don’t think flat warts are bad in themselves, but if they are found early, it’s better to remove them quickly right away.

*Can dermatologists get flat warts too?

Dermatologists treat patients with flat warts every day and are in environments where they are exposed to the virus. So, almost as an occupational disease, flat warts keep appearing on the face, neck, and so on. If you didn’t know, you could live comfortably without knowing, but even if just a few flat warts appear, they’re so visible to your own eyes.. and that is really irritating. So, including me, most dermatologists periodically treat each other with laser procedures. Still, because we are constantly exposed to the flat wart virus, recurrence is common. In the end, I came to the conclusion that for my flat warts to decrease, the number of patients with flat warts must decrease too!! Just like wishing for world peace(!), eradicating flat warts from the universe is my New Year’s wish every year (I really mean that sincerely). I hope this blog post can help even as much as a speck of dust on the road toward eliminating flat warts, and that awareness of early treatment for flat warts will increase. Starting from the next post, I’ll begin writing about flat warts in earnest.

That wraps up the prologue. I look forward to your support from here on~