Foot News You Can Use
What Can Go Wrong With Toenails
Toenails serve a purpose as a protective layer between the outside world and the inside of our toes. We could live without them but that would look kind of funny. Entire industries have been created because of fingernails and toenails. Although we have many other foot and ankle conditions to keep us busy, toenails conditions do take up a decent amount of our attention.
If we never wore shoes or socks, very few things would happen to our toenails. Since we do, there are many things that can go wrong with them. Not only can toenails get ugly, but they can also hurt a ton. If you’ve had an injury to a nail or an ingrown nail, you know how painful they can be.
A bruised toenail is one of the more common nail conditions we see. The nail will have a dark spot or area. Most people aren’t aware anything happened. A bruise of the nail usually doesn’t hurt. Since a dark color of a nail could be something else we suggest having it looked at it to rule out anything more sinister such as skin cancer of the nailbed.
A thickened toenail is another common toenail condition. Fungus, yeast, bacteria, and damage can make toenails thick. We can determine which one is the cause by sending a sample of the nail to a pathology lab. Knowing which one it is will dictate the treatment. Fungus, yeast and bacteria can be eliminated, but damage can’t be reversed. The earlier we know the diagnosis the better chance of getting a favorable result.
We treat multiple ingrown toenails every day. If your toe hurts when being bumped or from the bed covers touching it, you probably have an ingrown nail. They happen mostly because of genetics. We treat many children who have this hereditary condition. Trying to solve an ingrown nail on your own is a recipe for more pain and failure. We have a simple treatment method that can last forever.
Bacterial Infections around toenails happen frequently. Redness and pain of the skin around part of the nail are the signs of an infection. These typically happen close to the cuticle. Sometimes the nail loosens from the nail bed. If you have these symptoms an antibiotic is needed as soon as possible. If the infection isn’t treated quickly enough you could lose the nail.
There are several other things that can go wrong with toenails. It’s not important that you know them all. What we do want you to know is that the sooner you have us address a nail that has changed, the better the chance of a positive outcome. All too often we’ve had no solution for injured, infected or thickened nails because they were left untreated for too long.