How To Stop An Ingrown Nail

Ingrown Nails: Symptoms, Treatments, and Prevention

What Is an Ingrown Nail?

Picture of Ingrown Toenail Ingrown nails happen when your nail grows into your skin instead of over information technology. This happens more with toenails than with fingernails, peculiarly your big toe.

What Are the Symptoms of an Ingrown Nail?

When ane of your nails starts growing into the skin, you typically have symptoms in stages. First, you'll accept:

Swelling
Tenderness
Hardness

If your ingrown toe gets infected, you'll motion on to other symptoms including:

Redness
Pus coming out of your toe
Haemorrhage
Hurting
Feeling hot or shivery

What Causes an Ingrown Nail?

You lot're more likely to get ingrown nails when you:

Cutting your toenails too short
Round your blast edges. To avoid ingrown nails, always trim straight across.
Vesture sick-fitting shoes or tight hosiery that press your nail into your toe
Hurt your toe by stubbing or jamming it
Put repeated stress on your toes from poor posture or physical activeness that stresses your feet, such as running, ballet, or soccer
Inherit genes that brand you more likely to have them

If the condition causing the ingrown toenail continues, the pare that grows over your blast tin can lead to permanent changes in the tissue that can cause infection, more hurting, and more swelling.

What Are Some Ingrown Nail Treatments and Abode Remedies?

If your ingrown nail isn't infected, you should exist able to treat it at home. To manage symptoms, you tin can:

Soak your feet. Reduce swelling and tenderness by putting your feet in warm water for 15-20 minutes three to four times a day.
Keep your feet dry. Allow your feet breathe to avert sweat or dampness.
Utilize a wedge to lift your nail. Put dental floss or a pocket-size slice of cotton wool under the edge of your nail to help lift it as information technology grows out. Change it out daily.
Apply antibiotic foam. Embrace your toe with a cast afterwards to help protect it.
Pick helpful shoes. Choose open up-toed shoes or shoes with plenty of room in the toe. Don't vesture heels.
Have pain relievers. Over-the-counter options like acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help reduce tenderness and swelling.

If your symptoms don't become improve -- or get worse -- after you try home intendance, your doctor may need to treat the trouble. They may try:

Prescription antibiotics. You may need oral or topical medication to assist get rid of your infection.
Lifting the nail. If your problem is mild and doesn't involve pus, your doctor can employ a splint to elevator your nail and set it in a new position to help information technology abound above the peel.
Removing some of your infected nail. Your doctor volition numb your toe earlier surgically cut away the function of the boom that'southward growing into your pare.
Removing all of your infected nail. If you keep having ingrown nails on the same toe or finger, your doctor may take off your whole nail. information technology tin can take up to iv months to grow all the way dorsum in. And it's more than likely to be misshapen once it grows back.

How Can I Prevent Ingrown Nails?

Proper grooming is the first stride in preventing ingrown nails.

Soak your feet start to soften the nails.
Always cut the nail straight across using boom clippers, and leave plenty boom to cover the toe to protect information technology. (Do not use scissors, which are difficult to manipulate in the corners of the boom.) Smooth sharp edges with an emery board.
Wear socks and shoes that fit properly. Exist aware that tight, pointed, high-heeled shoes and tight stockings can cause ingrown nails by putting pressure on the toes.
Parents should groom young children'south nails. An older relative may need assist, likewise, because of weakened vision and greater difficulty reaching their anxiety.

What Are Some Ingrown Nail Complications?

If you lot have diabetes, vascular bug, or numbness in your toes, yous demand to take special care to care for and prevent ingrown toenails. And don't put off getting treatment. Ingrown nails that go untreated for a long time can make the trouble more severe.

Complications that can develop include: