This week I’ve had a few conversations about ingrown toe nails. It is a nasty aliment when it occurs and can be very painful. Also due to the lovely environment inside a shoe they can become infected, especially when professional advice is not sought quickly.
An ingrown toenail is a spike of nail that grows into the skin rather than in a curved fashion away from the inside of the nail. There are numerous reasons for them to occur, some reasons include the following. 1) Poorly fitting footwear, football boots especially aggravate the big toe nail. 2) Genetically prone nails – the shape of the nail is predetermined by genetics and a severely curved nail is predisposed to become ingrown. 3) The most common I’ve seen is poorly cut nails or someone trying to get or pick the nail out themselves.
If you suspect you have an ingrown nail, seek treatment from you local podiatrist/chiropodist. Do not try to ‘pick’ it out yourself – this makes our job more difficult and is often more painful for you. If you think it is infected, soak your feet in warm water with salt, apply from antiseptic cream and cover with a plaster.
Make sure to ring a professional to get the spike of nail removed, sooner rather than later.
Happy Feet
Lucy
My mother keeps having some issues with ingrown toenails lately. It is good to know that she should make sure that she is wearing properly fitting shoes. It might also be smart for her to go see a podiatrist about her ingrown toenails.