An ingrown toenail is a serious problem that can be permanently disabling. The problem is mostly surgical and is by no means rare. Quite a lot of people suffer from this disease and not even all doctors know how to treat ingrown toenails correctly. The disease is treated surgically and with folk remedies, but after some time the nail grows back into the skin. This is because there are many nuances in the treatment of ingrown toenails that are not known to everyone.
Knowing the objective reasons why toenails grow will help you avoid similar problems in the future. So, the reasons are as follows:
If your nail has grown into your toe , you will definitely feel it and immediately be puzzled by the question: What to do? The symptoms , as they say, are obvious. The pain is such that it is impossible to walk, and painkillers no longer help. Experts distinguish three stages of an ingrown toenail:
1. Redness and swelling of the cushion on the big toe, pain when pressing, indicate that an ingrown nail is “just around the corner.”
2. Suppuration, weeping, pain when walking.
3. Chronic inflammation: the finger is deformed, the nail folds are injured and doubled in size, the soft tissue grows - the so-called “wild meat” is formed.
The method of treatment depends on the stage of the disease. At the initial stage, when there is only redness and slight swelling of the roller, home treatment is possible: ointments, steaming, folk remedies. In the second and third stages, when there is severe pain, suppuration, and wild meat has formed, only competent surgical intervention will help.
Which doctor should I contact if I have an ingrown toenail problem?
To the surgeon at your clinic! Whatever the doctor, good or bad, be sure to consult a specialist! A neglected ingrown toenail can lead to inflammation of the bone tissue (osteomyelitis) or gangrene, followed by amputation.
The doctor will diagnose “onychocryptosis” and perform surgery with local anesthesia.
Most often, if you simply pull out the embedded piece of nail, the result will be short-lived. By removing the irritating factor - the nail plate - the doctor will relieve the local symptom, and over time the nail will grow back and dig into the “wild meat”. It is important to excise the “wild meat” on the phalanx of the finger, cut it out, and suture it. When everything heals, the finger is epithalized and there will be no large nail fold; re-injury will not occur.
As mentioned earlier, self-treatment with home remedies is good only in the first stage (redness and swelling of the roller, pain when pressing). Nail care should be carried out carefully so as not to further injure your finger or cause an infection.
Ways to treat ingrown toenails at home:
Not alcohol solutions, but chlorhexidine. Pull it off with a bandage, reducing the pressure.
The feet are dipped in a warm saline or soda solution, and then the dry feet are treated with hydrogen peroxide. Peroxide works well against pus.
It is important to keep your feet clean to prevent secondary infections!
What you shouldn’t do if your nail has grown into your toe:
A dubious method, but it is described in many Internet sources. It is necessary to make a hollow with a file in the middle of the ingrown toenail. The leg should first be steamed. The ends that have grown under the skin after the incision will begin to rise up. As they grow, the tips of the nails will come out from under the skin; all that remains is to trim them. You can’t saw the nail all the way, two-thirds is enough.
This method is described in a video on YouTube. Wild meat dries out and falls off on its own. An ingrown toenail can be cured within a week after just two procedures. The third procedure is the control one. The recipe is very simple, but it is more relevant for the southern regions of Russia, where sunflowers grow.
Bodilki - I burn sunflower stems so that the output is a ball of ash the size of a man’s fist. The ashes are placed in gauze (double or triple - the density of the gauze should be such that water can pass through it) and form a ball. The legs are lowered into an empty basin, and gauze with ashes is placed on the edge of the basin. Boiling water is poured onto this ball at a temperature that can be tolerated. There should be enough water in the basin to cover your fingers with water that flows out through the ball. According to the author, the product perfectly draws out pus and heals the wound.
There is no need to cut the diseased nail; it is recommended to wait until the nail grows completely. An overgrown nail should be cut in a straight line; do not trim the sides.
Now you know what to do if your nail has grown into your toe. Good health to you, take care of yourself!
A large number of people are faced with the problem of ingrown toenails, due to which they are forced to endure severe pain not only when walking, but also at rest. , serious complications may arise over time .
Most often, discomfort from ingrown toenails is experienced by women who, in pursuit of fashion and the desire to look good, wear tight shoes with narrow tapered socks. In this case, the fingers become compressed, which is why the nail can pierce the nail roller and dig into the finger.
Patients often turn to doctors and ask a rhetorical question: why do toenails grow in? It is quite difficult to answer this question unambiguously, since the cause of this pathology can be various factors:
Some women and men turn to medical institutions for qualified help only when their toenail is ingrown and festering. In this case, the cause of suppuration can be any infection, which, if not treated in a timely manner, can lead to severe consequences: osteomyelitis or gangrene, often accompanied by amputation of the distal phalanx, or even the entire finger. People whose nail has grown into their finger experience severe physical suffering, as they are forced to constantly endure sometimes unbearable pain.
Ingrown toenail or onychocryptosis, an unpleasant painful disease. Characterized by ingrowth of the nail plate into the soft tissue of the finger. Typically seen on the big toes. There are no age restrictions; the disease manifests itself at any age, but young people are most often susceptible to it.
Symptoms of the disease can be divided into several groups, depending on the stage:
If the disease is not treated, the inflammation becomes chronic and can affect bone tissue. In addition, the patient experiences serious discomfort and is exposed to serious danger.
The development of the inflammatory process along with infection can lead to very unpleasant consequences, including the development of gangrene of the thumb. People suffering from diabetes mellitus, thrombophlebitis, and varicose veins should be especially careful.
The nail has not grown into the skin. This is the initial stage. The nail has not yet grown into the skin, but it is very red, which causes anxiety and discomfort. The nail has grown into the skin. The skin is cut by the nail plate and is very red and swollen. Blood may ooze from the wound. The finger hurts very much. An inflammatory process is observed.
Initial manifestations of ingrown toenail disease:
What to do if a nail has grown into a finger and how to quickly eliminate this pathology? If you are constantly bothered by inhuman pain that not only prevents you from walking normally, but also from sleeping, then the problem has gone too far and you will have to go to the hospital. Today, there are several ways to treat ingrown toenails:
The most common treatment method is removal of the irregular nail . The procedure is painful, but modern specialists perform it under anesthesia. Before visiting the clinic, you need to find out whether they give anesthetic injections.
Plate treatment . This new technology causes virtually no pain. It is similar to the technology of installing dental braces. The procedure consists of disinfecting the nail and applying glue. Then a plate is glued onto it. It prevents the nail from growing in. The plate is coated with a special gel, which makes its surface smooth. This is a very convenient procedure. It does not interfere with wearing shoes; the plates can even be painted with varnish.
Treatment of ingrown nails with laser . This modern procedure is done with anesthesia. It is completely painless and takes about seven minutes. The finger heals in a week. The laser does not completely remove the nail. Only those parts where the nail has grown into the skin are removed. This procedure not only gets rid of the problem, but also prevents its further occurrence. It also gets rid of fungal infections.
If the nail grows into the finger (skin) without accompanying complications, then you can try to get rid of this problem yourself. First you need to make a ten to fifteen minute bath with a solution of manganese or furatsilin, you can use regular baking soda. You need to do such procedures two to three times a day. Experts also recommend using chamomile or other medicinal herbs that can be alternated. The procedures should be repeated until the wound heals. When the inflammatory process subsides a little, you can try trimming the affected area of the nail. If the pain does not subside day or night, and nothing helps to get rid of it, and the discharge becomes more and more abundant every day, then it is strongly recommended to urgently consult a doctor.
If the nail has grown into the skin and this process has been delayed , and pus is released from the affected area, it is necessary to rinse it with three percent hydrogen peroxide. Then take a fifteen-minute bath with a weak solution of manganese. After this, apply a bandage with Levosin or Levomekol ointment. Doctors recommend this ointment because it has a hydrophilic base, it contains an antibiotic, and it does not create a greasy film on the wound surface that can create a greenhouse effect in the wound. You can also use other ointments, for example, liniment according to Vishnevsky, or the well-known Ichthyol ointment, which will help clean the affected area and also relieve inflammation.
There is another way that will help get rid of this pathology: try sawing the middle part of the nail. There is nothing scary in these actions, despite the fact that, perhaps, everything looks terrifying at first glance. In fact, this process is simple and causes virtually no pain. For this purpose, take a file and begin to saw the ingrown nail in the middle, starting from its base and reaching the edge, about two-thirds of its entire thickness. Due to sawing, the plate will rise and the edges that have grown into the nail will also move upward. At this time, it may be possible to place cotton wool with brilliant green under the affected edge. The procedure must be repeated every two to three days until the problem goes away completely.
More details about treatment at home are described here
What should I do if my toenail grows? This question can often be found on specialized Internet resources. To get rid of this pathology, you can try “old-fashioned” methods. In folk medicine, various recipes are used that help eliminate the problem of ingrown toenails.
During treatment, and during the rehabilitation process, patients should wear loose shoes so that there is no compression of the ingrown area. If you have a tendency to ingrown hairs, then it is better to avoid narrow, tapered shoes altogether. This is due to the fact that due to constant compression, the problem will repeat again and again, and in the future it will be aggravated by complications.
It should be remembered that inflamed areas can only be steamed in warm or room water, but under no circumstances in hot water. You cannot use compresses that cause warming, otherwise you can get an abscess or phlegmon. If the process is too painful, ibuprofen or nimesulide can be used for pain relief. If the pain does not go away within a week, you should definitely contact a medical facility.
It is easier to prevent any illness than to treat it later. That is why experts recommend carrying out a set of preventive measures that can prevent ingrown nails:
People should remember the main thing! It is better to carry out preventive measures than to waste time, money and effort on treatment. Timely medical care can save you from many problems in the future. And most importantly, you must not forget to strengthen your body and harden yourself. After all, a healthy body with a stable immune system has nothing to fear from inflammation and suppuration, since even if they occur, they pass very quickly.
Ingrown toenails (most often on the big toes) cause many problems for a person. After all, this is not only very unattractive and unhygienic, but also causes severe pain and discomfort. Therefore, you need to get rid of the problem as soon as possible, since delaying treatment can cause more serious consequences in the form of severe inflammation and suppuration. To do this quickly and effectively, you first need to carefully understand the causes of the phenomenon.
Most often, the process affects the thumbs, but in general it can happen on any other finger, both on the legs and on the arms. The reasons are as follows:
An ingrown toenail can be treated surgically by seeking help from doctors at the appropriate clinic, or you can try treatment at home. The last option is relevant if the inflammation has not yet gone far and the pain is not clearly expressed.
A handful of coarse salt is poured into a bowl of warm water. Both sea and food are suitable. Warm salt water will soften the nails and skin in the damaged area. For prevention and as a disinfectant, it is also recommended to add potassium permanganate or furatsilin to the finished bath. After the procedure, when the skin has already steamed sufficiently, you can carefully place a piece of cotton wool under the sharp edge of the nail, which is pressing on the wound. This will lift the edge and reduce pain. Baths with the addition of various dry herbs, such as St. John's wort or chamomile, are very effective.
If treatment is not started in time, inflammation and even suppuration may occur at the site where the nail grows into the skin. In this case, it is best to seek advice and help from an experienced specialist. Before going to the doctor, you should regularly wash the wound with hydrogen peroxide, which will disinfect it.
It is also worth preparing a special medicine from available materials. For this you will need black bread and natural bee honey. These products must be mixed in equal proportions and then applied to the wound under a bandage. This medicine helps draw out pus from the wound and relieve inflammation as quickly as possible.
Discomfort, pain, inability to walk normally and a feeling of constant pulsation - this is familiar to those who have at least once encountered an ingrown toenail and, perhaps, treated it at home.
In this place, pathology appears tens of times more often than on the hands or other toes.
There may be several reasons for the development of an unpleasant defect:
You can treat ingrown toenails at home and in a clinical setting. The first option is suitable for the initial stages of ingrowth, when proper pedicure and some other methods can still solve the problem, but the second option is appropriate when serious suppuration begins, and it is not possible to solve the problem with improvised means.
Doctors are visited infrequently, leading to serious consequences, but this happens not because people do not want, are afraid or embarrassed, but because they do not know which doctor to contact.
And the surgeon treats ingrown toenails – onychocryptosis. It will help you quickly get rid of the problem. Another specialist who deals with feet is a podiatrist.
A doctor will help you cure an ingrown toenail completely and radically, but there are other methods of dealing with the problem:
These methods involve some unpleasant intervention, so to speak, small operations that will help treat the ingrown toenail. However, there are other methods, one of them is the use of special staples.
A wire loop that is custom made and applied to the nail without requiring cutting. It acts on the principle of a screed, lifting the corners and preventing them from growing in. Over time, the plate straightens.
Before use you need:
A rigid wire is placed across the nail, and the ends are bent over the edges (in the middle). After 3-4 days you can feel the elimination of pain and some relief.
A wire bracket, which is also installed and fixed at the edges. Gradually the nail lifts and straightens. You can wear such a brace for up to six months, visiting a doctor every 1.5 months.
It is important to ensure that the staple does not twist, otherwise it will tear off the nail. All types of braces, including ZTO, are installed only by a doctor.
A small metal bracket of a flat format, one end of which is attached to the edge of the nail, and the other is glued to the plate (ideal if the nail grows in on one side and seems to be rounded).
The doctor’s job is to correctly calculate the tension of the staple so that it does not potentially tear off the nail plate.
Plastic plates that are attached with glue:
Change this accessory, which helps if the nail is ingrown on the big toe and festers, about once a month. Treatment lasts from 3 months to six months.
All plates are an ideal option for solving the problem of an ingrown toenail without resorting to surgery in the first stages. However, the risk of relapse remains quite high.
Ointments and gels are the best way to soften an ingrown nail, kill infections and correct the correct growth of the plate.
However, they are more effective for the first stages. Can be prescribed in complex therapy after surgery:
When choosing a way to get rid of an ingrown toenail, you cannot ignore special liquids for treating the toe during a pedicure, installing a brace or other manipulations:
There is another excellent remedy, like baths - it is quite possible to cure an ingrown toenail on the big toe without surgery in the first stages.
For implementation you will need a small container, if you have a special bath with massage, then that’s just wonderful! You should add several different ingredients to it:
To summarize, we can highlight a diagram of what to do if there is an ingrown toenail on your big toe:
There are other methods of treating ingrown toenails, called folk remedies. Their effectiveness in itself is questionable, but their use as an alternative and complementary therapy is appropriate.
Most traditional methods contain useful components that really help regeneration and fight pain:
If an ingrown toenail is in advanced condition, you need to consult a doctor and strictly follow the recommendations, since traditional methods are not able to straighten a severely deformed plate.
You can prevent re-ingrowing nails by using the following recommendations:
Flat feet put people at risk: they are more likely to develop ingrown toenails, just like those who suffer from atherosclerosis or diabetes.
During pregnancy, ingrown toenails should only be treated under the supervision of a doctor. He will help you choose the right ointment that will not harm the health of the child and mother, and will also prevent the development of complications and infections.
If the temperature begins to rise with an ingrown toenail, this means that the periungual fold is severely infected. At the same time, pain appears and swelling increases. The process goes to the bones and surrounding tissues.
If in a child who can speak, an ingrown toenail causes discomfort, and it can be treated with almost all the same methods as in adults, then the baby cannot tell about the disease.
Often parents do not understand why the baby is crying, they pay attention to diapers, abdominal pain, teeth and many other nuances, but the problem may be ingrown toenails.
In babies they are very soft and easily deformed, but they can also be easily treated if the process is noticed in time. The disease in infants can be either congenital or acquired.
To correct it, you need to use some methods, and the symptoms will help determine the problem:
For prevention, you should regularly examine your baby's toenails.
You need to act quickly, since in such young children the infection process develops much faster due to weak immunity. Ideally, you need to contact a specialist so that he can prescribe the correct method of treatment.
If the nail was noticed in time and did not have time to grow too deeply, you can trim it with small nippers or nail scissors. At the same time, the leg steams. After cutting off the sharp edge of the nail, treat the foot with alcohol.
For baths, slightly different recipes are selected than for adults:
If pus has already appeared in the wound, then you can apply aloe pulp to it for a quarter of an hour.
To prevent ingrown toenails in young children with soft plates, you need to:
If the pathology appears again and again, then you need to visit a surgeon to correct the growth of the plate.
You can get rid of ingrown nails at home in children and adults if the pathology was noticed in time. In all other cases, no ointments, creams, folk remedies or other methods will help.
They will only harm and worsen the condition of the nail, and can also lead to the development of severe infections due to constant trauma to the skin.
Many people face the problem of ingrown toenails ( onychocryptosis This is exactly what it looks like, the nail has grown into the finger . Most often, this problem occurs due to wearing tight shoes, in which the tip of the nail is pressed and after some time grows into the finger. In addition, high heels contribute to ingrown toenails because the toes are pressed very firmly and continuously by the shoes when walking both above and below.
If a nail grows into a finger , it causes a lot of pain and a lot of inconvenience and does not look very nice. Quite often, a nail grows ingrown due to improper cutting. It is best to trim nails with scissors with rounded ends, after taking a hot foot bath, when the tissues soften and the nail itself becomes elastic. If you accidentally cut your nail deeper than necessary, put the scissors aside and continue working with a nail file, as unfiled edges can later lead to ingrown nails or infection.
For this you need: 2 l. boiling water, 6 tbsp. spoons of flowers. All this is tightly covered with a lid and infused for one hour. Then strain the infusion, reheat it and hold your finger in it until the water has cooled completely. The decoction can also be used for baths; it needs to be boiled for 10 minutes, the duration of the procedure is 15-20 minutes. After the procedure, dry your feet, remove the ingrown part of the nail and place a cotton swab soaked in brilliant green or iodine. The treatment is completed after the nail has assumed the correct shape and position during growth.
Then take a large leaf of plantain, stretch it a little and apply it to your finger, then take another leaf and put it on top, wrap your finger with a bandage and put on socks. This bandage needs to be changed every day for a week.
This is very painful and unpleasant; for such an illness, people have long used the following folk recipes. In the evening you need to put on a thick fingertip filled with butter and a warm sock on top. The procedure is daily. The compress should be removed in the morning, approximately 20-25 days will pass and the pain will stop. As soon as the pain has stopped, you need to carefully move the nail away, file it with a file and put a bandage under it. If possible, you need to repeat the treatment, but without cutting, you need to let it grow back along with the corners, for this you also put a bandage or gauze, but do not cut the nail, if this is not done, then the nail will constantly grow into the soft tissues of the finger.
The aloe leaf needs to be finely crushed, add twenty-five drops of water and mix everything well. Moisten a cotton wool or bandage with this solution and apply it overnight; be sure to wrap it with plastic wrap on top. In the morning the nail will soften, you can simply cut it off or use a nail file. If you don't have an aloe flower on hand, there is another very good method. Take a birch mushroom, scientific name "chaga", and wrap it tightly around your nail overnight. The next morning the nail will soften, after which you can cut it off very easily.
5. A hot bath with table salt is a very effective method; after several such baths, the inflammation around the nail resolves, or the pus comes out straight into the water.
6. To relieve irritation and pain , if you have an ingrown nail, you need to take a small piece of lard (not frozen!), melt it over a burning candle or gas burner, drip it onto the sore spot where the nail has grown into the tissue. Repeat daily, twice a day, after pain and irritation stop, stop treatment, steam your foot and trim the ingrown nail or file it down.
7. Mix everything, one tablespoon at a time: a paste of garlic, onions, aloe leaves, melted butter, pour in one teaspoon of beeswax. Boil the mixture, constantly stirring the contents exclusively with a wooden spoon, for about two to three minutes. Then remove from heat and cool the mixture to room temperature. This ointment should be applied to an ingrown nail in a thick, thick layer, then to the inflamed skin and soft tissues of the finger, cover the ointment with a thin cabbage leaf, bandage it and insulate it with warm woolen socks. Repeat this procedure daily until complete recovery.
Steam the leg thoroughly with the addition of potassium permanganate or chamomile flowers. Use a nail file or a small piece of glass to sharpen the middle of the nail - vertically, (from top to bottom), half a centimeter wide. Take a swab or a small piece of cotton wool, 3-4 mm in diameter. Using a sharp object, after wiping it with alcohol or cologne, insert the swab under the corner of the nail; the swab should be lubricated with butter, vegetable oil or Vaseline. The nail should not be trimmed, much less cut off completely. Repeat the procedure every other day, but the size of the tampon should be increased. Repeat until the pain completely stops.
For prevention, the procedure can be repeated; the nail should be trimmed evenly, without rounding the ends. Grind the entire nail, or the middle, a little - thanks to this, the nail becomes more and more narrow.
9. Steam the foot , carefully trim the nail, and, if possible, completely or partially remove the ingrown tissue. Treat the needle file with alcohol, exactly in the middle of the nail, making a groove 3mm wide. Within a few days, the pain will disappear and the skin inflammation will subside. After some time, the groove will begin to heal, and the nail will no longer grow into the tissue. Next time, to avoid re-ingrowing, always trim your nails straight or file them.
And remember, before you decide to have surgery, you should try folk recipes , and even better, take proper care of your nails to prevent ingrown nails.
Ingrown toenails are uncomfortable, painful and require long-term treatment. Mostly the big toes are affected, but there are cases of deformation of the plates on the hands. A set of methods can correct an ingrown toenail.
Rice. 1. The big toe is often affected by an ingrown toenail.
Rice. 2. Improper trimming of the big toe nail leads to ingrown toenails.
Rice. 3. An ingrown toenail causes severe pain.
Only a doctor can determine how to treat an ingrown toenail. It is better to seek help at the first stage of the disease. In the absence of severe inflammation, it is sometimes possible to avoid complete removal of the nail plate.
In some cases, it is enough to follow the doctor’s recommendations, which are aimed at eliminating the inflammatory process and growing the nail so that it can be properly trimmed and reshaped.
Rice. 4. An ingrown toenail can be treated without surgery.
No ingrown toenail treatment method guarantees elimination of ingrown toenails in 100% of cases.
Rice. 5. The laser method is the most effective in treating ingrown toenails.
Prevention of ingrown toenails is very important if there is a hereditary predisposition.
“Laser correction of anal prolapse (prolapse)”