The main reasons for the appearance of an ingrown toenail and possible complications. Effective ways to fight. Preventive measures.
An ingrown toenail is an unpleasant and fairly common problem, despite the fact that, according to official statistics, a maximum of 2 out of 100 people come across it closely. However, those who are unlucky enough to be among the “chosen ones” remember their experience forever. Constant pain, lameness, inability to wear the shoes that you like … There are enough problems. How to get rid of an ingrown toenail quickly, painlessly and most importantly, forever? Is this possible in principle?
What is an ingrown toenail?
In the photo, an ingrown toenail
The term "ingrown nail" is popularly used to denote the pathology of the nail plate, as a result of which its edge begins to protrude into the soft tissues of the periungual ridge, damages the skin, deforms itself, causes pain, inflammation and suppuration.
In the language of science, this unpleasant phenomenon is called onychocryptosis. It occurs in people of all ages and social groups, can affect any of the 20 nails a person has, but more often annoys patients of working age, attacking the big toes.
Types of pathology:
- Easy … It is characterized by slight edema and beginning inflammation of the soft tissues without visible changes in the nail plate and without suppuration. The pain goes away if uncomfortable shoes are removed.
- Moderate … The affected finger swells and turns red on one side, the nail acquires a compacted structure, loses its healthy shine and color, protrudes into the nail roller. Purulent discharge may begin to appear, the proliferation of connective tissue around the affected area. Painful sensations persist for a long time even after a person takes off his shoes or puts on free room slippers.
- Heavy … Severe edema extends to the entire phalanx, the nail plate changes shape, a full-fledged infection occurs, ulcers appear, keratomas form - benign dense skin formations. The finger hurts most of the day.
A frivolous attitude towards the problem of an ingrown toenail at an easy stage leads to its overflow into a severe form. If treatment is neglected at this stage, an ingrown nail is quite capable of provoking the appearance of abscesses, harmless but unpleasant warts and much more dangerous malignant neoplasms, and in addition, cause osteomelitis, infection of the blood and lymph nodes or gangrene.
Some statistics:
- 10% of all visits to the surgical departments of polyclinics in Russia are due to an ingrown toenail.
- In the list of the most common inflammatory-purulent diseases, onychocryptosis takes an unrepentant 2nd place.
- There is evidence that an ingrown toenail makes life more difficult for women than for men. Although maybe the fact is that the stronger sex does not like to go to doctors and simply does not get into the statistics?
Why do nails grow into the skin?
Still, why do nails grow in, and what to do about it? This is a polyetiological condition, that is, for its occurrence, at least a couple of different reasons must converge.
The most common of them are:
- Physiological features of a person … U-shaped nails, skin ridges protruding too high above the nail bed, beveled edges of the nail plates, deformation of the fingers, "bones" on the joints, flat feet, weakness of the muscular system and other problems leading to improper distribution of the load when walking.
- Endocrine diseases associated with metabolic disorders … Such ailments can affect the work of various body systems in the most unpredictable way, including causing onychocryptosis.
- Poor choice of shoes … If a narrow toe is too tight on your toes, the heel is too high, or the sole is too stiff, don't ask yourself why the nail is growing into the skin.
- Mechanical damage or severe hypothermia … The first violates the integrity of the nail plate and soft tissues, the second strikes a blow to local immunity.
- Heavy sweating of the feet … Quite a rare cause, but sometimes due to increased hyperhidrosis, the periungual ridges soften and become more vulnerable to nails.
- Incorrect or sloppy pedicure … The habit of rounding corners and cutting the nail plate too close to the skin also often comes out sideways.
- Increased load on the feet … This primarily concerns the owners of impressive weight and those who spend most of the day on their feet.
- Pregnancy and lactation … There are two reasons for this at once - a significantly increased weight and hormonal changes in the body.
Among other reasons why nails grow in are fungus, felon and other diseases.
Most often, it is not difficult to determine that the nail is growing into the finger by visual inspection. However, in some cases, in order to obtain a more complete picture of the patient's pathology, they may be asked to do a general blood test to determine the degree of inflammation; check your glucose levels, since an ingrown toenail is especially dangerous for diabetics; carry out an x-ray if it is necessary to determine the area of suppuration or to check if there are changes in the bone.
Note! Foot problems are dealt with by a podiatrist - a pedicure specialist with a medical degree. In addition, with an ingrowing nail plate, you can consult a dermatologist and surgeon.
How to remove an ingrown toenail?
So, you got into the same 2% of "lucky" and found an ingrown toenail on your foot: what to do, where to start, and can you delay visiting a specialist?
Folk remedies
In mild cases, when there is still no strong suppuration or pronounced edema, it makes sense to try to remove the ingrown nail at home.
Algorithm of actions:
- Take a warm bath … Please note that it should be very warm, but not hot, since by steaming your finger strongly, you run the risk of increasing swelling and intensifying suppuration, and there will be little use from cool water. For disinfection, you should add a choice to the bath: a pinch of potassium permanganate, 1 tablet of furacilin, 1-2 tbsp. l. soda or sea salt, infusion of pre-brewed calendula (50 g of dry raw materials per 1 liter of water).
- Disinfect damaged skin … Blot your foot with a clean towel and dab some iodine on the affected toe, making sure it gets under the nail. The procedure is unpleasant, since the wound will probably burn, but it is necessary.
- Give your nail the ability to grow normally … To do this, first use a special manicure spatula to push the softened skin rolls back into place, then gently lift the ingrown corner and put a small ball of cotton wool or a piece of dense cloth soaked in sea buckthorn oil under it. The oil will help heal, and the cotton or cloth pad will keep the nail from growing into the skin.
- Lock the liner … For this, a patch and a tight sock are suitable.
- Be persistent and consistent … In the morning, the used tissue from under the nail will need to be removed, put a new piece in its place, put on clean socks, and in the evening repeat the whole procedure again. Since it will not be possible to remove an ingrown nail in a couple of sessions (you will have to wait until it reaches the desired length, bypassing the ingrowth point), tune in to long and painstaking work. But in the end, your efforts will pay off.
TOP 5 folk remedies for ingrown toenails: what to do at home to speed up healing:
- Rub 2-3 drops of tea tree oil into the nail plate daily.
- Apply a piece of kombucha to the overgrown corner, fixing it with a breathable bandage at night.
- Make compresses from the crushed aloe leaf, which are fixed on the finger with the help of cabbage leaf scalded with boiling water, and then with polyethylene and a sock.
- Treat the affected area with a mixture of grated onions, aloe pulp and honey, taken in equal parts. It is also better to do this at night.
- Immediately after the bath, tie a little butter to the nail, hiding it under plastic and a secure bandage.
Note! Although all of the listed methods of removing an ingrown toenail are popular among the people and have proven their effectiveness more than once, you should not rely on them too much. So, oil and honey will become a breeding ground for bacteria, if severe suppuration has begun, onions can corrode the wound, and a bath of soda can dry out the skin of the feet. If you have the slightest doubt about the correctness of the chosen path, it is better to immediately go to the doctor. Moreover, in case of timely treatment, you will have every chance to do without removing the nail, which scares many so much.
Therapeutic agents
What means will the specialist offer? Most likely, these will be the same baths and compresses, but with more modern drugs.
Among them may be:
- chlorhexidine for disinfection;
- ointments and balms specially created for the treatment of ingrown nails - Nogtinorm, Uroderm;
- Fluconazole and similar agents, if there is a suspicion of a fungus;
- Vishnevsky ointments, Ichthyol and Salicylic for better healing;
- keratolytics to exfoliate dead skin cells and soften ingrown toenails;
- analgin, if you want to relieve pain in an inflamed finger.
Orthopedic aids
In the photo, a brace for the correction of an ingrown nail
Orthopedic aids make it possible to dispense with mechanical or laser removal of an ingrown nail and to preserve the aesthetic attractive appearance of the feet for the entire recovery period. True, it will be effective only if the nail is not affected by the developed purulent-inflammatory process.
The surface of the nail is thoroughly cleaned, pus, blood, wound secretions are extracted from the wound with the help of tampons. If the lesion cannot be completely cleared, orthopedic procedures will have to be abandoned in favor of surgical removal.
With the help of a special device with clamps, the nail is “unbend”, a bracket is put on it, which relieves pressure on the skin rolls, evens out the growth direction of the plate and helps its correct formation.
The staple is fastened with miniature hooks at the edges of the nail, or they resort to using glue and acrylic.
Thus, painful sensations are removed almost instantly, the angle of the nail plate ceases to disturb the living tissue and, over time, passes the point of ingrowth, and the wounds heal.
The best way to use staples is to get rid of an ingrown toenail. Although, given that many of the devices are made for the client's phalanx on an individual basis, the orthopedic method may be effective in less common cases (other toes, hands).
Types of staples:
- Fraser staples with 1 or 2 loops;
- 2-piece interlocking OPA-Spange bracket;
- staples ZTO from 3 parts;
- Erki hooks with rubber band;
- B / S-plates made of plastic with a spring;
- flat bracket with Gorikevich spring;
- Goldstadt steel half bracelets with gilding;
- polymer-coated Onyclip staples;
- Combiped and Podofix systems.
Note! When pedicure ingrown nails, the podiatrist often uses a vertical groove. It is sawn through in the upper stratum corneum of the nail in order to pull the ingrown part into place after installing the plate.
Surgical methods
For a deeply ingrown nail, surgery is often the best option. It makes it possible to eliminate the problem in a matter of minutes, easily reach the source of infection and save the bones and soft tissues of the foot from further infection. However, in this case, surgical intervention entails a long recovery period and leaves an unsightly picture at the site of the removed nail.
The essence of the resection is as follows:
- The patient is given local anesthesia.
- The nail or part of it is removed from the nail bed together with a fragment of the matrix - a living tissue responsible for the growth, position and direction of the nail plate.
- At the same time, excision of the overgrown tissue of the skin ridges can be performed.
- Suturing is usually not required, but the wound is covered with a sterile dressing that will take a long time to wear.
- In simple cases, when the wound heals, an artificial covering can be installed on it, which will make the feet look attractive, but this should be done by the same podiatrist, and not by the master in the salon.
- A new nail grows back on average after 3 months.
The ingrown nail is removed with a laser, mechanically (scalpel) or using radio waves. The latter method is considered the most gentle and almost bloodless, therefore it is recommended even for children and pregnant women. However, in any case, the patient must together with the doctor determine which method to choose.
Note! In the first 5-7 days, the dressing should be changed daily, treating the wound with antibacterial and wound-healing ointments. At this time, it is necessary to especially carefully monitor the hygiene of the feet, wear loose shoes and avoid physical activity.
Prevention of ingrown nails
Knowing how to remove an ingrown toenail is not enough. You also need to be able to prevent re-ingrowth, which is much more difficult. Practice shows: with improper care, even a nail that has not yet recovered by 50% begins to grow in!
How to prevent this:
- Observe the rules of hygiene.
- Choose high quality comfortable shoes.
- If necessary, purchase orthopedic insoles.
- Cut off nails during a pedicure not in a semicircle, but perpendicular to the nail plate, only slightly rounding the corners with a soft nail file. Cutting them off too much risks provoking a relapse.
- Do not cut your nails close to the skin, as they say, "to the meat."
- Do a pedicure after water procedures, when the nail plates are softer.
- Monitor your weight so as not to put unnecessary stress on your feet.
What to do if a nail grows in - watch the video:
Follow the recommendations received and take prevention measures more seriously. Unlike teeth, which can only be tidied up for a tidy sum, it is much cheaper and easier to restore an attractive appearance and health to your nails. It only takes a little effort.
