Ingrown Toenails, How Does a Podiatrist Treat it?
How Does a Podiatrist Treat it? Ingrown Toenails
Most of you probably know the pains involved with having an ingrown toenail. What you may not know, unless you’ve had this problem taken care of before, is how your podiatrist can go about treating the ingrown nail. In the next few paragraphs, you’ll learn about the treatment of ingrown toenails.
An ingrown toenail occurs when the sharp edge of the nail grows down into the skin of the toe. This usually causes pain, and may involve redness and swelling around the nail. When this happens, it’s usually a good idea to take care of the problem promptly. This will avoid prolonged irritation by the nail, which in turn can increase the chances of harboring infection, not to mention the longer you wait, the longer you’ll likely be in pain.
When you first see the podiatrist, they will assess how bad your toenail situation may be. If a simple trimming of the nail corner will relieve your pain, that may be the best approach. However, if your nail is severely ingrown and infected, this simple treatment won’t work and more invasive measures must be implemented. If this problem is new to you or is determined by your doctor to be a possible one-time occurrence your doctor may be able to simply remove a portion of the nail or your entire nail. This will allow the nail to grow back, hopefully coming back in a regular fashion without being ingrown. To do this, your podiatrist will probably numb your toe, and then remove your nail with some intimidating tools. There may be some bleeding, in which case your doctor or their nurse will dress your toe will gauze and possibly some antibiotic ointment. The numbing medicine will continue working for several hours, so your toe will remain numb. You may experience some pain the following day, but usually patients are able to return to their normal activities promptly.
If you experience recurring ingrown nails or your nail is ingrown as a result of a deformed toenail following trauma to the toe, then your best option is likely a permanent removal of the nail. In this case, your doctor will numb your toe and either remove the ingrown border of the nail or the entire nail (depending on how severe your problem is) using the same tools as a non-permanent removal described above. Then to make the removal permanent, they will use a chemical to kill the root of your nail so it will not grow back. There may be a little more pain involved with the recovery process of this procedure, but again, this won’t bother you until the numbing effect wears off in several hours. This pain is associated with the fact that the chemical used to kill the root of the nail actually creates a chemical burn that needs to heal. Despite the pain, which is rarely as painful as the ingrown nail itself, you’re usually able to resume normal activities right away. If your podiatrist decides a partial nail removal is appropriate, your remaining nail will appear normal, just slightly narrower than before. This is often the most aesthetically pleasing option because you’ll still have a nail left on your toe.
If you have diabetes, poor blood circulation, any kind of nerve damage, or an infection around your toenail, absolutely do NOT try to treat an ingrown toenail on your own. Go to your podiatrist right away. For the rest of you, while there are some home remedies for ingrown toenails that may work, it is usually best to see your local podiatrist, who as a foot specialist, is the most qualified doctor to deal with such a problem.
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