How to Fix Ingrown Toenails
An ingrown toenail may seem like a fairly uninteresting type of foot problem but for thoses of us that have suffered with them, you know how painful it can be.
Your toe can become red and swollen, the flesh about the nail’s edge becomes so very sore to touch that the mere thought of wearing shoes brings tears to your eyes.
It can really be the sort of “simple” foot problem that stops you doing the things you love to do.
What Causes and Ingrowing Toenail?
An ingrown nail can occur following an injury to the nail or after picking or tearing the nail.
In this situation, part of the broken or torn nail begins to push into the soft, delicate skin next to it.
As the nail grows, the sharp nail section makes a hole in the skin next to the nail which allows bacteria into the skin to produce an infection.
This will leave the toe red, swollen, inflamed and very painful.
Ingrown nails can also develop slowly over many years, slowly changing shape from a flat plate to a curved, staple like shape.
This curling of the nail can occur with the regularly use of shoes that are too small or if there is bone spur on the top of the end toe bone that sits below the nail.
Infected toenail
You really have two options for treating an ingrown toenail:
- Conservative care
- Surgical treatment.
Conservative Treatment of Ingrowing Toenails
Conservative care of an ingrowing nail involves removing the cause of the irritation; the piece of nail digging into the skin, and managing any infection present.
This can easily be done by our expert Podiatrists in a relatively painless way.
If the toe is extremely painful however, we can always offer to use a local anesthetic to numb the toe before starting treatment.
Surgical Treatment of Ingrowing Toenails
If conservative care fails to relieve to problem or if the ingrown nail gets infected regularly, a surgical treatment may be required.
At the beginning of the surgery your Podiatrist will inject a local anaesthetic into the toe to make it numb.
Once you can feel no pain, they will remove the edge of the nail and then “kill off” the growing point at the base of the nail to stop the nail edge regrowing.
Surgery for an ingrown nail is a relatively simple procedure done in the clinic however, it is important to remember that any surgery has risks.
Early treatment is advised to avoid surgery
An ingrown toenail Treating Ingrown toenails is a fairly simple problem to deal with if managed early
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I would love to talk to you about how we can help you build an amazing life from the feet up.
Anthony Robinson
Director of Complete Podiatry