Advice on ingrown toenails?

[wulfie]

Same general situation as Raubvogel here. Go to a podiatrist - when he cuts the nails he'll put some acid on a swab and burn the root of the nail with the acid on both sides so the nails won't grow back. I had them cut 'normally' one time and eventually they grew back. I had the acid treatment done about 3 years ago and no problems any more and in that past 3 years I have really abused my feet - I mean everything on my feet broke down *except* my 'acid nails'.  The podiatrist cuts and burns them after giving you a local anesthetic on your feet (usually he does both big toes just to make sure). Wraps the big toes in heavy gause and ace-type bangaging after dousing them with antibiotic ointment. You have to change the dressings and reapply dressings and ointment for about 2, maybe 3 weeks while taking it kind of easy on your feet. Then problem solved - at least it was for me.

Mike/wulfie

[Kweassa]

Embrace the pain!

 Knife and tweezers every month, does it pretty good, if you're running low on medical funds. Cut the sides carefully, so the nails don't break off in the middle. Carefully pull, so the cut piece  extends to the root area. And then, firmly set the tweezers on the dangling piece of nail and yank them out. You must pull the root area with the outer parts of the nail, all in one!

 Ho boy does it smart like crazy.

 Quickly apply antibiotic, bandage it up, and enjoy the numbing pain. After about two days, no more pain.

 God, you're safe until the next month!

 

[_Schadenfreude_]

Get a sharp and I mean sharp pair of nail scissors with a straight pointed blade and do the following.

1. Cut a angle at the edge of each nail at about 45 degrees towards the flesh of yr toe - the section will be held on by a small piece of nail but will come loose - this will stop the current pain.

to prevent it recurring do the following.

2. cut a V shape in the center of your nail as deep and wide as possible - as the nail grows it will move in from the sides to fill the V gap and stop in the ingrowth on the sides. Use a nail file to smooth rough  edges so they don't catch on socks/sheets etc.

In future always cut your nails rather than tear them - learnt this from a medic in the army when I was doing a fair amount of walking and had to keep the old feet in good condition.

[rpm]

My Father forced me to wear "Cockroach Killer" boots as a child, the ones that come to a point. As a result both of my Big toes wound up growing concave and the nail edges nearly touched. I suffered indescribable pain for 20 years until I went to a Podiatrist and had them premanently removed. Yes, the shot of Lidocane hurt like hell. I swore he stuck that needle into the bone! For the last 10 years I have not had 1 single day of pain and not a day goes by that I am not glad I had it done.  My toes still are curved and had I not had the nails removed they would have grown back curved.

(Note: My Dad never had his nails removed, until a Surgeon removed his entire Big Toe because of Gangrene! You decide which was better.)

[Rutilant]

*shudder*
now i'm scared! thanks for the advice, i'm gonna go with the professional, since every time i try and fix somethin it ends up in the trash..


acid? ewww..

[Curval]

Originally posted by Vulcan
Second, if you live near a beach go for regular walks in the salt water. It clears out the infection. Once the infection clears out you can let the nail 'grow out'.

This is excellent advice if the toenails have become infected.  It's "old school" but it really works.

[Midnight]

Have a doctor fix it.

They numb the area with local injections.

They use little cutters to cut off either side of the nail to make it narrower.

They use a swab with some sort of acid to kill the root on the sides.

The nail never grows back from those spots.

I had both sides of both my big toes done. Ahh.. so nice not to have pain and blood in my socks anymore

[rpm]

Here's a nifty little link about ingrown toenails....WARNING: There ARE pics.

http://bing.20m.com/toenails/story.htm

[MwXX]

WORD of ADVICE on this issue...I have had 5 surguries on one toe cuz some doctor didnt know what he was doing. after being scamed for 2 years with surguries and therapy...I finally went to go see a different doctor who in one visit "with a really cool "live" xray machine" found the problem that kept bringing back the ingrown....

Bone spur on the big toe....45 min later after an "in house" surgery....bone spur was gone..and havent had an ingrown since!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You might want to ask about that or get a second opinion

[Replicant]

I had an op on an ingrown toenail in February.

They did it under local anaesthetic which is done by three injections into the toe.  One either side and then one in the top where the bone is.  That hurt like fek!  Of course you couldn't feel a thing afterwards!

They then cut a what I can only describe as a trench either side of the nail, taking about 2-3mm of the nail off in the process.  They then scraped the white stuff away from beneath the nail so the nail wouldn't grow back.  They can't stitch it so it's just a case of lots of dressing.  The doctor decided to do both sides of the nail (even though only one side was ingrown) as a kind of preventative maintenance!  They'll only remove the nail completely if you get another ingrown toenail on the same toe.

I had to go to out-patients daily for about a week to have it cleaned and redressed and I was off work for about 3 weeks (job was mostly outdoors).  After about 7 weeks it was fully healed and now several months on it hasn't caused me the slightest problem.


See this link: http://www.acfas.org/brnailds.html  Look for Partial Nail Removal.  They didn't peel the skin on mine, just cut the trench!

It was the first time I've had any operation and I found it to be okay, recommended if all else fails!