Preventing a Recurring Ingrown Toenail
Avoid shoes that put too much pressure on the ingrown toenail. This includes shoes that are too tight, shoes with a small toe box and high heels. Shoes which are too large can cause irritation when the foot slides back-and-forth inside the shoe. Poorly fitting shoes can too often cause damage to the toenail. Many healthcare professionals will recommend that those with symptomatic nails wear open-toed shoes such as sandals. If you are unsure how to properly trim your deformed toenail, ask your healthcare provider. Insure that you use clean instruments to cut straight across the top of the toenails. Do not trim the nails too short or curve the edges. If you have faulty foot mechanics that place an excess of pressure on the nail fold, you might consider wearing corrective orthotic devices.
How do you fix a painful nail?
- Perform a matrixectomy, killing the root, of the nail.
- Do a temporary avulsion of the ingrown border
What can you do for an ingrown nail at home? Initially, at home soak the toe in warm soapy water. Then apply topical antibiotic ointment . Now Call your Podiatrist Pittsburgh. Urgent cares often will just prescribe oral antibiotics without removing the nail , and tell you to see a foot doctor in Pittsburgh. We have same day appointments usually available. If you don’t remove the entire ingrown piece, you could be making it worse, causing a deep ” spicule” to develop.
Treatment Options
Utilizing Toe Guards
If your daily tasks require you to wear shoes constantly, you might want to think about wearing toe guards.
Between your toes and your shoes, toe protectors offer a gentle, protecting barrier. The majority of the time, these are elastic stretch-fit caps.
Wet your feet
Up to three or four times a day, we advise using warm (not hot) water for 15 minutes at a time. This not only feels amazing, but it also lessens some of the discomfort and swelling. After the bath, you might try using a fresh piece of dental floss that has been treated with wax to gently raise the nail.
Put on an antibiotic cream
This is a logical precaution to assist lower the possibility of contracting an infection.
Think about getting your nails done
Partial or complete nail removal may be required if home cures for an ingrown toenail are unsuccessful. A doctor might cut away a portion of the central growth plate, the nail bed underneath, or the nail border using local anesthesia.
The doctor may advise removing the entire ingrown nail in severe, recurrent occurrences. This is a desperate measure that could be uncomfortable and raise your risk of infection. Additionally, it raises the possibility of a misshaped toenail as it regrows.
Put on socks and comfortable shoes
Your toes may be crowded by shoes and socks that are excessively tight. Ingrown toenails are frequently caused by improper footwear.
Wear shoes and socks or hosiery that fit comfortably while still leaving enough room in the toe bed to avoid an ingrown toenail from forming or getting worse. Avoid wearing shoes or sandals as much as you can during the healing period to lessen pressure on your toenails.
Whenever to visit a doctor
You must visit a physician if
- Home treatments don’t help the situation get better.
- A home cure has caused an allergic skin reaction in you.
- You’re uncertain of how to treat an ingrown toenail.
Why You Should Not Ignore An Ingrown Toenail?
There are just so many reasons why you should not ignore an ingrown toenail, you will need to many complications that can even be life threatening, these complications include:
- Serious Infection
If ignored for too long then bacteria and germs will start attacking your injured nail, which leads to infection. When this happen the would becomes itchy and starts oozing out pus. You may also experience foul smell, if you have an infection on your toenail which is something you should be worried about.
Infection also causes fevers, so if you are dealing with fevers after an ingrown toenail injury then it could be because of the infection from the toenail.
The most dangerous thing about this infection is that the germs can enter your blood stream too through the would. This situation can be super dangerous since it allows the germs to spread the infection all over the body.
- Non-healing Wounds
Bacteria and germs may start affecting your veins and blood vessels if not treated for a long time. If your veins in leg or foot are affected by them then they will stop working which will make it hard for your wounds to heal. If this continuous your wounds gradually stop healing and start decaying which is also called as tissue death.
Such situation can even lead to amputation, since once tissues start decaying they start destroying other tissues too.
- Extreme Pain
All these complications are going to cause you a lot of pain, even daily activities like wearing a show or walking will become really painful which won’t to away really easily. Not to mention, your nail isn’t going to stop digging your skin which will keep making this process even more painful, so its better to get the treatment as soon as possible.
How do you stop the pain of an infected toenail?
- Have your Podiatrist remove the ingrown side of the nail.
- Trim the corner of the ingrown nail a bit to relieve a little pressure, without digging.
- Don’t dig at it!
- Apply some Neosporin with Lidocaine.
Can I soak in Epsom salt for the ingrown nail? Yes, epsom salts are helpful when soaking an ingrowns, but not necessary. A little white vinegar, Tide, or other soap can be used, or just plain warm, but not hot water.
Apple cider vinegar soak
These days, ingrown toenails are one of the many ailments for which apple cider vinegar is used as a folk treatment. Although there is little scientific proof, it is thought to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and pain-relieving properties.
Prepare a basin with warm water and 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar to test this cure. Each day, soak the troubled foot for up to 20 minutes. After soaking, properly dry your foot.
Ingrown toenail home remedies include clipping the corner after soaking the nail, and applying a topical antibacterial cream or ointment like Triple antibiotic, Polysporin, Mupirocin, or Gentamycin.
- Causes of grown in toenails include tight shoes and incorrect cutting.
- healthy toenail prevention entails cutting the toenail straight across and roomy shoes.
- Incurvated toenail treatment is best done by a Podiatrist, Pittsburgh PA.
- Ingrown toenail infection can occur if you pick at it, but also if you ignore it.
- Ingrown toenail removal is a simple process done at a foot clinic with the right tools and an foot doctor experienced in nail care.
How to get rid of an ingrown toenail includes permanent and temporary measures- ask your Foot Dr in Pittsburgh.
Ingrown toenail fix does not include cutting a “V” in the nail.