By: Lissa Hardbarger
While walking to class in her new shoes that finally went on sale, Sarah feels a sharp pain in her toe. Thinking back, she couldn’t remember walking through very much organic terrain, so why would there be a rock in her shoe? With a bit of investigation and the limitless help of search engines, we come to find out what was the actual culprit: an ingrown toenail.
Ingrown toenails are more common than you might think. According to livestrong.com, about 5 percent of adults run into an ingrown toenail or similar nail problems annually.
Perhaps the reason people don’t talk often about their nail health is because it might imply that the individual is unhygienic or lazy. Under certain circumstances, if the problem is ignored or left untreated, an ingrown toenail could lead to the amputation of a treasured lower limb.
People with diabetes or poor circulation to their feet should watch out for any sort of nail condition because they are more at risk for complications that are quick to escalate.
Having an ingrown toenail can and probably will be tough to deal with. Having an ingrown toenail is when the nail is not being properly taken care of, in one way or another, and starts to grow back beneath the skin.
Since nails don’t belong in that part of the toe, our bodies see this new development as a foreign object – a threat to our well-being, our health – and fights to get rid of the infection.
Because this is not possible without the help of physical force, the inflammatory response gets worse and causes more pain and swelling, feeding the ever-worsening cycle of an ingrown toenail.
The biggest cause of ingrown toenails is poor fitting shoes. Footwear that is too short or too narrow will definitely increase the risk of developing a nail complication (or any foot complication, for that matter) because of the lack of space it creates for the nails to comfortably grow. Other commonly reported causes are improper nail care – cutting the nail too short or curving the cut of the nail to create a more rounded nail shape – and hereditary predisposition – oddly shaped nail beds – or the result of a bacterial infection, in which case antibiotics are used to treat the condition.
If caught at the first sign of a problem, most ingrown toenails can be treated straight from the uncomfort of your own home.
I say uncomfort because trying to fix an ingrown toenail on your own, in my experience, has proven to be very painful.
A widely used at-home remedy is to place a small, sterile object, typically a small piece of cotton or a part of a toothpick under the affected area, raising the nail and forcing it to grow out of the surrounding skin.
As a previous victim of an ingrown toenail, I can honestly say that this approach won’t do much if your condition isn’t caught very early on. The next step would be to see your doctor, who will probably prescribe antibiotics to rule out the chance of it simply being a bacterial infection. If this also fails, your doctor might recommend a procedure called partial onychectomy.
This means that the doctor or surgeon will cut away the offending extra bit of nail and part of the surrounding nail. There is an option of letting the nail grow back or having the procedure done permanently, in which case that part of the nail bed is destroyed with iodine and will never grow back. This avoids future painful visits to the doctor’s office and recurring discomfort. The end result certainly looks better than having a swollen, pus-caked toe all of the time.
In the end, this is a condition that is very avoidable but still very common. Through proper nail care and education, we can prevent any serious damage to our feet and save ourselves the hassle of having to go to a doctor to have the problem fixed.