What is ingrown toenail?
Ingrown toenail is a very common condition wherein the toenail side or corner grows into your soft flesh. Consequences are swelling, redness, pain and also, infection. Usually, ingrown toenails affect the big toe. You can take self care measures to treat ingrown toenail, however if the pain gets spreading or severe, the doctor can help you relieve the discomfort whilst avoiding the complications caused by ingrown toenail in future.
Individuals having diabetes/other conditions which may ground poor blood circulation to the feet, are more likely to face complications of the condition.
What are the symptoms of ingrown toenail?
Symptoms of ingrown toenail include:
- Tenderness and pain in the toe along a single or both corners of your nails.
- Swelling and redness of toe around your nail.
- Tissue infection around the toenail.
When is the high time to consult a doctor?
In case you experience great discomfort, redness or pus in your toe that seems spreading or a diabetes patient and notice any foot infection or sore, discuss the condition with your doctor immediately.
What causes ingrown toenail?
Common causes of ingrown toenail are:
- Injuring the toenail.
- Wearing shoes which crowd the toenails.
- Having curved toenails
- Not trimming the toenails straight across or too short.
What are the complications of ingrown toenail?
If left undetected or untreated, ingrown toenail may infect your underlying bone causing a severe bone infection. If you are a diabetes patient, then the complications tend to be quite severe. Diabetes cause poor circulation of blood and damage your feet nerves. Thus, a minor injury of foot such as corn, callus scrape, or ingrown will not get properly healed whilst become infected.
How is ingrown toenail diagnosed?
The condition can be diagnosed through examining your nail plus the skin in surrounding. Moreover, your doctor would need your symptom’s details in order to ensure the condition is ingrown toenail.
How is ingrown toe nail treated?
Few treatment procedures for ingrown toenail are:
- Lifting nail: particularly for a minor ingrown toenail (no pus, only pain and redness), the doctor will lift the edge of the ingrown nail carefully, and place a dental floss, splint or a tiny piece of cotton under it. Actually, this separates your nail from the skin underlying, helping it to grow on top of your skin edge.
- Partly removing your nail: particularly for serious ingrown toenails (pus, pain and redness) the doctor would cut or take off the ingrown nail portion.
- Removing the tissue and nail: in case, the problem tends to occur repeatedly on your same toe, the doctor would recommend removing a nail portion along with the nail bed (underlying tissue). Treating ingrown toenail using this procedure would ensure preventing that nail part from growing again. The doctor can use a laser, a chemical or some other methods for the procedure.
The doctor will also prescribe oral or topical antibiotics, particularly if your toe is likely to develop infection or is infected.
By : Natural Health News
