What are ingrown toenails?

They’re called "ingrown toenails" for good reason! These pesky conditions can cause major discomfort in your toes if left untreated. The condition is characterized by skin growing over the edges of a person's nails, or when one side growth becomes trapped under its neighboring flesh-colored section and starts eating away at it from within.. Onychocryptosis usually only occurs on either big toe but sometimes other toes get involved too - especially those near heels where circulation may be less robust than elsewhere on foot

The big  toe is the most commonly involved followed by the lateral side toes being involved more frequently  than the medial ones. Reports indicate that two out of every ten people who see their healthcare providers for a foot problem have an ingrown toenail.

Anyone can get an ingrown toenail. However, people at a higher risk include adolescents, schoolchildren, pregnant women, athletes, and people who have diabetes, poor blood circulation, and infection around their toenails or severe nerve damage in their legs or feet.

If you trim your toenails too short, especially on the sides of your big toes, you risk setting the stage for an ingrown toenail. Often, many people trim their toenails in a way that they taper the corners to make their nails curve with the shape of their toes.

This technique often encourages their toenails grow into the skin of your toe. The sides curl down, dig in and cause an ingrown nail!

Signs of ingrown toenails

The first signs of an ingrown nail include a hard and swollen feeling around the toe. If this occurs, it may lead to infection as well due to bacteria getting trapped under your skin or in between layers near where they grow out from."

Symptoms include

• Excruciating pain around the affected area.
• Liquid or pus oozing out of the affected area.
• Redness or darkening of the affected area.
• Swelling in the affected area.
• Feelings of warmth or hotness around the affected toe or area.

Causes of ingrown toenails

An immune response to a foreign substance is one of the underlying causes of ingrown toenails. The edge of the toenail pierces the cuticle when the toenail bed is crushed from the side. As a result, the keratinaceous nail substance is digging into the toe's flesh, which sets off a foreign body reaction.

Triggers of the presence of keratinaceous nail material in the flesh of the toe include the following:

• Improper grooming or trimming of toenails, including cutting of toenails too short or rounded, which makes the nails grow into the skin.
• Putting on improperly fitting shoes.
• Toe trauma, including due to the stubbing of the toe, the toenail getting stepped on, or wearing poorly fitting or tight footwear.
• Congenital reasons, for example, if the toenail is comparatively larger than the toe or the tissue surrounding the toenail border naturally grows around the toenail.
• Tearing of the corners of the toenail.
• Participating in activities, such as running and kicking, which put the toes at risk of injury.
• Having a condition, such as diabetes, which causes poor blood flow in the body.

Diagnosis of ingrown toenails

The symptoms you're experiencing may point to ingrown nails. A podiatrist will examine your toe for signs of an infection or other conditions that could be causing pain, redness and swelling around the nail bed as well as tenderness when pushing on it with little effort; these indicate possible cases where someone has had trouble healing after having surgery like Removal Of Skin From toes .

In rare cases, when the toenail is severely infected, your podiatrist might take a sample culture to identify the infection. X-rays might also be required to diagnose more serious toenail infections.

Treatment of ingrown toenails

Ingrown toenails should be treated as soon as they are identified or diagnosed. If they are recognized early before infections set in, home care management may prevent the need for further treatment.

Overall, there are two types of ingrown toenail treatments: non-surgical and surgical. Non-surgical treatments include laser toenail fungus removal using the nail fungus laser and the home care approach.

The home care approach involves the following:

• Soaking the foot in warm water about three to four times daily.
• Keeping the foot dry during the day.
• Taking ibuprofen or acetaminophen for pain relief.
• Wearing properly fitting footwear, with adequate room for the toes (if the condition already exists, wearing of scandals until it clears up).
• Seeking the services of a doctor if no improvement happens within a period of two to three days, or if the condition worsens.

Laser toenail fungus treatment uses a toenail fungus laser to kill the organisms that cause toenail fungus infections. The laser heats the toenail and its bed with laser energy, effectively and safely eradicating the fungus and promoting the growth of clear nails. The procedure is relatively painless.

The surgical type of toenail treatment is a relatively minor outpatient procedure to remove part of the ingrown toenail. The podietrist will remove the portion of the toenail with the infection.

Your doctor may recommend ingrown toenail surgery if your at-home remedies don’t resolve your ingrown toenail, you have recurring ingrown toenails, or you have another condition such as diabetes that makes complications with your ingrown toenail more likely.

Get help with the diagnosis and treatment of ingrown toenails?

If you're one of the many people who suffers from ingrown toenails, don't worry because there is help available. Click here for more information on how this condition can be treated and what causes it in first place!