What You Should Know About Ingrown Toenails

Ingrown toenails are painful and can affect your ability to walk or stand normally. If they worsen, they can lead to an infection and cause other health complications. Fortunately, there are straightforward treatment options for ingrown toenails and precautions to take to prevent them from reoccurring. If you have a painful or infected ingrown toenail, you can seek treatment from the best Kingston Ingrown Toenails clinics, which offer advanced and comprehensive medical care. Learn more about ingrown toenails, their causes, and the best remedies available.

What Are Ingrown Toenails?

An ingrown toenail is a common painful foot condition that causes the nails to grow or dig deep into the nearby soft tissue of the skin. This condition can occur on any toenail, but it is more prevalent on the big toe. While you can treat ingrown toenails at home, it is always best to seek medical treatment from a podiatric clinic to avoid other health complications.

Causes of Ingrown Toenails

Ingrown toenails are mostly genetic but can also occur due to factors such as wearing tight, narrow or crowded shoes, which can put pressure on your toes. They can also occur in people with sweaty feet and thickened toenails, which might be difficult to trim or cut.

Also, cutting your toenails at an angle can lead to ingrown toenails. It is always advisable to cut or trim your toenails straight across to avoid irregular or curved toenails. Toenails injuries such as kicking a ball repeatedly or hitting your foot on a heavy object can also develop ingrown toenails.

Signs of Ingrown Toenails

Ingrown toenails are easy to detect early but can worsen and lead to severe symptoms if not treated. You risk developing ingrown toenails if you have diabetes or severe nerve damage on your feet or legs. Here are several signs to look out for ingrown toenails.

• Visible pain or intense pain on your foot/toenails
• Inflamed and tender skin around your toes
• Fluid build-up around your toe
• Redness and swollen skin around your toes

In severe cases of infection, your toe may begin to bleed or ooze pus with a distinctive smell. If not treated, the infected foot can affect other parts of your foot or legs, leading to serious health complications.

What Are the Remedies for Ingrown Toenails?

Most ingrown toenails usually respond well to non-surgical treatments, including over-the-counter medications and antiseptic treatments. If your ingrown toenails are in their early stages, your podiatrist will advise you to soak your foot in warm, salty, and soapy water. Afterward, you should apply an antiseptic lotion and bandage the affected toes.

If your condition does not improve in a few days, your podiatrist will prescribe over-the-counter medications to relieve pain and improve your situation. Surgical treatments are mostly preferred when all other treatments have failed, or your foot has become infected.

To treat an infected ingrown toenail, your podiatrist will partially or entirely remove the ingrown portion of the surrounding infected tissue. For chronic ingrown toenails, your podiatrist can permanently remove the damaged nail to prevent reoccurrence.

Ingrown toenails are quite common but treatable across people of all ages. You can remedy your condition through home care treatments or an ingrown toenail specialist from Hudson Valley Foot Associates. Through a team of experienced and certified podiatrists from Hudson Valley Foot Associates, your condition will significantly improve within a few days. Call or schedule an appointment online to begin your treatment journey.