Ingrown Toenails
The Highlights
Ingrown toenails involve a portion of nail piercing the surrounding skin, leading to swelling, inflammation and potentially infection.
Especially curved nails and certain medical conditions can increase the risk of this and are important to have dealt with by a professional if you have underlying health problems.
Our Podiatry team specialise in managing this problem which can involve conservative care (careful and precise trimming of the nail for pain relief) or surgical intervention (removing the offending piece of nail under local anaesthetic) - the latter being something we have done over a thousand times with excellent results.
What is it and what are the symptoms?
Ingrown toenails (known in medicine as Onychocryptosis) are an extremely common (and often very painful) problem for people of all ages and levels of activity. It occurs when a portion of the nail plate digs in or punctures the surrounding skin. Left untreated, ingrown toenails will often become even more painful and can become infected.
Pain is, as you would guess, the almost universal feature of an ingrown toenail. The damage inflicted to the adjacent skin can also lead swelling, redness and, very often, localised infections. As swelling around the offending piece of nail increases, the nail is enveloped even further and therefore digs in more, leading to a viscous cycle and potentially severe versions of the symptoms described.
Why does it happen?
Two of the most common factors when combined that increase the likelihood of an ingrown toenail are involution (curvature of the nail plate edges) and poor self-care of your nails in terms of how they are cut (or ripped, bitten…we’ve seen it all!). Although it’s important to underscore the risk factors behind ingrown toenails can be diverse and can include factors related to genetics, hormonal changes, medications and other systemic health problems.
What are the treatment options?
In the first instance, it is important to see an experienced Podiatrist or Foot Health Practitioner who understands the condition. Our team have seen several thousand ingrown toenails and can confidently clear out the offending piece of nail to give instant relief. In mild cases, especially if it is the first such episode, we will usually then give it the benefit of the doubt and simply advise on appropriate nail care at home or provide you with ongoing routine nail care should you wish.
In cases where the nail problem is more chronic or severe, we advocate nail surgery as the treatment of choice. This is very routine for our team, with a combined experience of over a thousand (you read that correctly - over a thousand!) nail surgery procedures under our belts. A small local anaesthetic is administered to the toe in question and the offending nail plate is painlessly removed, either entirely or a thin strip depending on what is appropriate for your case. The part of the nail bed (the matrix) involved in making that piece of the nail is then treated with a potent chemical called phenol to ensure it does not regrow (in our experience, this is successful in virtually all cases). You are then provided with dressings and follow-up appointments as required, hopefully very happy in the knowledge the problem has been solved for good!
