What are Ingrown toenails?
Ingrown toenails are a common condition that can effect both young children’s feet and adults. It is often a simple issue that can be resolved quickly, however can also become a chronic issue causing ongoing pain and an unsightly looking toe.
An ingrown toe nail occurs when the edge or side of a nail irritates the skin around the toe. If this continues it can sometimes cause damage to the skin and actually lead to a break into the skin around the nail, causing an ingrown toenail. If this is not managed appropriately, pain can persist and the area is at risk of infection.
What Causes Ingrown toenails?
There are a number of risk factors for developing ingrown toenails.
- Improper cutting technique or tearing of nails: Nails should be cut following the natural curve of the toe. They should be never cut down into the sides or edges of the nail as this can encourage the nail to irritate the skin and increases the risk of ingrown toe nail.
- Involuted or curved nails: Some toenails are more naturally curved than others. Nails of this shape are more at risk of developing ingrown nails and extra care should be taken while cutting. They nails often need attention by a podiatrist to help manage.
- Trauma: This can be of repetitive nature e.g. running or kicking a ball or inadvertent trauma e.g. stubbing your toe or dropping something on your foot.
- Footwear: Footwear or socks/stockings that are too tight can create extra pressure on the side of the nail increasing the risk of ingrown toenails.
- Poor foot hygiene: As well as being a risk factor for ingrown nail development, poor foot hygiene also greatly increases the risk of infections.
- Fungal toenails: Fungal toenails if left untreated for long periods can change the shape of the nail or the direction of nail growth. This can in some circumstances cause the development of an ingrown nail.
What can I do at home to help?
If your ingrown toenail is not too painful or sever, you may be able to treat it yourself at home. Strategies for self management include:
- Soaking your feet in warm salty water for 5-10 minutes.
- Applying Betadine or other antiseptic and a dressing over the area. This can help to protect the toe and prevent infection.
- Gently massage the skin away from the nail edge. This can be done following soaking the toe in salty water. It often softens the skin and makes it easier to alleviate pressure around the nail.
- You should avoid trying to cut the nail edge out yourself. This may provide relief to start with, however will often result in the problem returning.
When should you seek treatment?
- Your toenail doesn’t start to improve after two or three days of self management.
- The pain of your toenail becomes significantly worse.
- Your toe has increased redness around the nail edge or increased swelling.
- Redness is starting to spread further away from the original area of irritation.
- You start to notice a pocket of pus or is oozing from the area.
- You have diabetes or suffer from any neuropathic conditions where you feeling in your toes is reduced.
How can a Podiatrist help?
Podiatrists are experienced professionals who will be able to assess and help manage all varieties of nail issues. This includes ingrown toenails.
Your Podiatrist can safely and effectively attend to and remove any section of nail that maybe causing the issue. It will be shaped appropriately to ensure more long term relief is achieved. The area will be cleaned and dressed to protect from infection. Often it will require some salt baths to ensure it continues to progress and possible infection is keep under control.
In certain cases, where ingrown toenails and infection are recurring then corrective nail surgery may be indicated to permanently resolve the issue.
This procedure involves the permanent removal of a small section of nail. It aims to resolve the ongoing cause of irritation from the ingrowing nail.
The procedure is performed under a local anaesthetic to ensure it is a pain free process. We will follow and manage the recovery period to ensure that the toe heals appropriately. Dressings for the toe will be required for approximately 2-3 weeks, however you are still able to walk and work as normal.
Fluid Movement Podiatry has a long history dealing with and managing the simple but also more persistent ingrown toenails. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions about your particular concern.
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