16 Oct Ingrown Toenails: Finding A Cure
Podiatrist in Merrick
More likely than not, you’ve been there before: Your toe has swelled up and is throbbing. You spent the whole night tossing and turning to find the right position for your feet, but even your blanket seemed to make it hurt. Now that you’re up and getting out of bed, you’re dreading having to put your shoes on because your toe just hurts way too much.
We feel your pain—but fear not, for there is a cure.
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Pesky, unsightly and downright excruciating at times, ingrown toenails are perhaps one of the most common foot-related conditions people complain about.
Your toe is sore, aching, pulsating, even, and the reason is obvious, or so you think: Your toenails are cutting straight into the skin of your foot!
Not so fast, foot sleuths. Ingrown toenails aren’t exactly that cut and dry. An ingrown toenail is actually a form of nail disease, and in fact, there are several other foot conditions that are similar but yet warrant completely separate diagnoses.
Convex nails, for example, a condition also known as club nails, is a deformity involving an increased curvature of the nail plate.
Involuted nails exhibit even more curvature, in some cases so severe that its tip curves around in a circle or even forms a half-moon shape, pinching and cutting the skin.
Ingrown toenails, or onyhocryptosis, involve the nail piercing the skin of the toe and/or the grooves on both sides of the nail plate (known as the nail sulci).
Small corns, debris or calluses can also end up within the nail sulci or even beneath the nail plate.
All of these conditions can lead to easy infection.
Telltale Signs of Infection
Swelling and redness around the affected nail and at its base, watery discharge tinged with blood and the drainage of pus.
How Intense Can The Pain Be? Very.
Wearing tight shoes and other footwear can worsen ingrown toenails-related pain.
The affected feet will also become highly sensitive to pressure, even the slightest amount, such as the mere weight of bed sheets!
Knocking or bumping the affected toes can amplify the pain as the nail further laces into your toe’s tissue!
So be careful and watch where you’re walking!
Causes of Ingrown Toenails
Ingrown toenails can be caused by a host of factors ranging from trauma and disease to genetics. The most frequent cause, however, is improperly fitting footwear.
Shoes that are too narrow or too short can cause unhealthy bunching of the toes that can alter their proper development and cause them to cut into the skin.
Improperly cutting your toenails (you should cut them straight across) can also lead to this painful condition. So can stubbing your toe, dropping heavy objects on them, and other sources of trauma to the nail plate or toe can cause ingrown toenails.
Bacterial infections may also be a cause.
It is important to expeditiously seek properly treat ingrown toenails expeditiously
Things To Help Prevent Ingrown Toenails
Cut your toenails straight across, not along a curve and not too short.
Don’t cut those nails shorter than the flesh around it! In other words, leave the edge of your nail clear of the flesh so it can’t cut into you even if it wanted to!
Treatment for Ingrown Toenails
Fortunately, treatment for this condition is easily accomplished by a podiatrist. Here at Cherrywood Foot Care, we deal with this problem on a daily basis.
If simple home remedies do not alleviate your symptoms—such as soaking in warm water with Epsom salt and an antibacterial ointment—then we highly recommend you come in, because we usually can cure this problem in just one visit.
Not only that, but we treat the condition in a manner in which the ingrown nail should never return!
We accomplish this by numbing the painful, infected toe so you feel no more pain. Then we clip out just a small corner of the nail back to its base and apply a medication on the base so that the corner that was removed never returns. The rest of the nail looks the same, except for the corner that was causing the problem in the first place.
There’s no need to suffer with ingrown toenails. We know the perfect remedy and look forward to treating you!
