I hate ingrown toe nails...

[Jugernot]

Every few years the big toe on my right foot get an ingrown nail.... at first it just starts to hurt. Then it get red and starts to get swollen. At this point, I usually start picking it at it and it becomes infected and starts oozing puss... It is at this point I usually have to see a doctor and have him/her cut out part of my nail. I've had to do this 3 times in the last 6 years, so i've got a good idea of how to do it.

The last time I cut it out myself, had to cut about 1/8" off the right side of my big toe nail. Hurt like hell... I tried to cut it out this time, but it doesn't quite hurt enough to dull the stabbing pain of cutting the nail with nail clippers. I only got half of it cut out tonight. I'll have to wait another week or so to rip the rest out.

I hate my right big toe nail!

Jugs

 

[NewSc2]

ewwwwwwwww

 

[rosamund]

that must be painful.

When cutting ur toe nail, cut it straight

and when cutting ur finger nail, u follow the curve,..

my fren tot me when we were studying in primary school

 

[wicktron]

Get a chainsaw. It worked for me.

 

[bacillus]

you need to see a podiatrist who will put some phenol onto part of the nailbed to stop the nail ingrowing!

 

[Chaotic42]

Yeah, that happens to me too. Same toe and everything. I usually just use nail clippers and needle nose plyers. Get the isopropyl ready too.

 

[IGBT]

Yup..they hurt. I dig em out after a shower..seems to be less bloody...

 

[pyonir]

I have the same problem, with both big toes. Next time i get to the point of having to go to the doc, i am getting the entire nail removed, and have them do whatever they have to do, that it won't grow back.

 

[Siddhartha]

Some suggestions:
1. Regularly cut your toe nails. I know this sounds like a DUH but it works
2. Before you start digging the next time it hurts, throughly wipe the toe with a 70% alcohol solution and soak your digging tools in it too. This will reduce your chances of infecting your toe.

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
Some suggestions:
1. Regularly cut your toe nails. I know this sounds like a DUH but it works

did that after the last time i had the Dr. remove them...didn't help. And i made sure to cut the way he tells you to. didn't work. I think it is because of wearing too tight of shoes when i was younger...

 

[Eli]

weird, never had this problem.. lol

 

[gigapet]

Had ingrown nails on both my my big toes. In about a half hour procedure the doc cut them out and put acid on the root so they would not grow back in that area. That was about 3 y ears ago and I havent had a problem since. Get to a doc that knows what they are doing so you dont have to go through this again. It was relatively painless so there isnt even the pain factor to worry about.

 

[BunLengthHotDog]

If you can stomach it...take a bath (NOTE: not a shower...) soak in water for at least 15 - 20 minutes, and immediately perform surgery after getting out of the bath. Both you skin and toenail will be far more pliable, making it much easier to get under the trouble section and remove the pressure from your toe. Basically a wet toenail is much more agreeable to bending and cutting than a dry brittle one.

 

[BennyD]

i have one atm, but i'm putting off getting it sorted till it gets bad :/

 

[Ryan]

Wow, I've never had these, but it seems that this problem is completely avoidable by not cutting your nials too short. Self inflicted pain sucks.

 

[SagaLore]

A year ago my big toe got ingrown and then infected really bad, and after about 4 months of trying to take care of it myself, I finally gave in and went to the doctor, and he cut my entire nail out. It's taken a year for the nail to finally grow all the way back, but once it got to a certain point it starting to be come ingrown again. So I'm trying to avoid getting the entire nail removed again, so I looked up home remedies and found something rather simple but it works. You have to stuff the ingrown part with sterile cotton, as well as underneath the rim of the nail. What this does is keep the ingrown nail edge from cutting into the tissue, relieving that pain and inflammation, and plus lifting the nail up so it grows over the tissue skin rather than into it.

It's taking a lot of time and patience, but it's working. Every morning after my shower, I put a few drops of Iodine onto my toe to sterilize it, then I use tweazers to push a piece of cotton I get from a cotton ball into the ingrown part. When I first started doing this it hurt really bad, but once the infection started to heal and the tissue became more elastic it doesn't hurt at all now. The tricky part is that at first if the ingrown part is really bad, it's too hard to get cotton underneath the nail at that part, so it's taken a few months now and I can finally get some cotton underneath that side of the nail (even though I was still putting it under where I could get to). I took a look at it this morning and it's almost reached a point where I can lift the nail over the ingrown part. Probably in a few more weeks. I've been at this for a few months now.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: bacillus
you need to see a podiatrist who will put some phenol onto part of the nailbed to stop the nail ingrowing!

Hell no. When I had my entire toenail removed, and specifically asked NOT to have my nailbed matrix killed on the edge. I did some research before going to make sure I knew what I was getting into. It permanently stops that sliver of nail from ever growing again. My brother had the same thing done a few years ago, and his toe looks totally deformed because of it. 1/3 of his nail doesn't grow back, so you see this big plump side of his toe and it looks awful. Plus, he stills has to maintain it every so often. When I was without my toenail for nearly a year, it's very hard to walk without that support.

Just soak the foot in hot epsom salt water for a week, then use the cotton method. It works. Oh and I also put a drop of neosporin cream on the infected part after I put the cotton in, just before I put my socks on.

 

[aircooled]

It can be surgically corrected permanently if it's a chronic problem.

I find that growing the toenail longer than usual helps prevent it from becoming ingrown.

 

[chin311]

yeah, ive had two of these things, THEY SUCK....hurts too, then you cant wear shoes, ahhhhhhh the agony!!!11

 

[mkool]

i used to get them like every 6 months for a couple years...i had the phenol thing done and it doesn't hurt or look deformed...maybe your's was performed sloppily or incorrectly...and my nail is growing back the way it should. there's also the option to get it electro-shocked now, but that seems a little weirder, and i don't have any details on that

 

[Spooner]

I just sort of ignored and dealt with my last ingrown toenail

eventually it just got red and infected, seemed to at one point leak its puss, now it's getting better by the day, doesn't even hurt anymore

i'm happy

 

[DanTMWTMP]

isn't there a procedure to end it once and for all?....my dad had this and he just had this small procedure done where they just cut the root of the nail where the ingrown will grow into.....my roommate had the procedure as well....

 

[Codewiz]

I cut my nails really short because I hate feeling the nails when I scratch my leg with my toes. I get about 4-5 ingrown nails a year. I have pretty much mastered the removal of ingrown toe nails. Give me a good set of nail care tools and I can fix it. Of course you have to have pretty large tolerance for pain. I usually soak my foot for about 20 minutes in really hot water before I do the removal.

I hate them but I will say this. When you get a really nasty one removed, the feeling you get when your toe doesn't hurt is amazing. One second, your toe hurts like hell if you touch it and then you remove the ingrown part and it feels so good. Of course I would just rather not get them.

 

[Fritoz]

Dr. Scholl's sells this ingrown toenail relief kit, or whatever it's called. It's like a band-aid, but instead of a sterile pad in the center of the adhesive strip there's this plastic wedge-type thing. You wedge that plastic between the toenail and the skin to do two things. First, it relieves the pain. Second, after a couple of days the skin will have slowly pulled back from the nail, and you can access it easier to cut out the section yourself. I've used these a couple of times, and it works like a charm. Better than paying a doctor, or worse yet, trying to dig under the skin...!

 

[Encryptic]

Ugh...I get ingrown toenails on my big toes once every 2-3 months and have to dig them out. I've been getting them on a couple other toes as well recently.