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How to use Avoca

Used properly, silver nitrate is a very simple, effective and economical option. Always follow the instructions in the patient information leaflet.

The keys to using it well on warts, verrucas and granulation tissue are these.

1. If there is insufficient body fluid, dissolve in one drop of water. Put one drop of water on a clean glass surface such as an upturned drinking glass.

2. Stir the tip of applicator or pencil in the drop of water. Don’t press on the glass with the tip. Stir gently. The longer you stir, the more silver nitrate will be dissolved in the drop of water. Stir for about 20 to 30 seconds.

3. Don’t use saline instead of normal water. Water high in chloride salts will neutralise silver nitrate so that it has no effect.

4. Transfer the water to the area to be treated on the tip of the applicator or pencil. Don’t press or rub. Silver nitrate tips are brittle and may break under pressure leaving pieces undetected between clothing and healthy skin. Just roll the tip over the surface to be treated until the area is wet. Take time to make sure that all the area to be treated is wet.

5. Allow the area to dry. Don’t cover. Don’t use a plaster.

6. Most surfaces touched by this water will turn black or dark grey in a few hours. This is a stain caused by the action of light on silver nitrate. It is a useful marker. But stains on fabrics and other absorbent surfaces like clothing, ceramics and furniture cannot be removed. Stains on normal skin will disappear in a day or two without damage. Glass and stainless steel are not stained.

7. You can protect healthy skin by covering with petroleum jelly.

8. Silver nitrate is absorbed by living tissue to a very shallow depth. It kills living cells by changing the pH of the environment around protein molecules.

9. Treated granulation tissue falls away.

10. Treated wart and verruca surfaces should be filed down using a fine emery board or a coarse nail buffer. File away the stained (dead) surface. Apply Avoca again as above and repeat the process. A repeated cycle of applying Avoca and surface filing eventually reaches all the virus which lives in the surface layers.

11. Verruca surfaces may be level with or below the surface of surrounding skin and therefore difficult to file down. In this case the treated surface may need to be scraped or cut away. If in doubt, consult your doctor.

12. Don’t use near eyes or on genital warts.

13. Mop up any unused water with a paper tissue and put the tissue in normal waste.

14. Unused Avoca can be safely disposed by dissolving the tip in salt water. Collect the residues in a paper tissue and put in normal waste. The empty plastic container or stick can be recycled.