Seelal says you may not need an OTC treatment to see your wart disappear; unless you’re immunocompromised or have diabetes, many people’s bodies recognize the virus and naturally clear the wart. (In the meantime, try not to touch it too often—you could spread the virus to other people or other parts of your body.)  If you try an OTC treatment and it doesn’t work, you may need to get professional care from a dermatologist. This is particularly true if you’ve had the wart for a long time or the skin has become thickened over the surface. It’s also important to remember that getting rid of a wart can be a tricky and prolonged process, which Dr. Sessa says is due to its viral nature; even once your wart goes away, the virus can lie dormant in healthy-looking cells, and can become active again at any time. “There is not a single thing, including in-office treatments, that is effective 100 percent of the time,” says Dr. Sessa. “Warts typically require multiple treatments...we can get rid of them with active treatment, but it's rarely a ‘one and done’ kind of thing.”