Ingrown toenails can top the charts when it comes to pain and discomfort. Millions of people can attest to this — up to 1 in 20 people have the condition at any given time, and ingrown toenails account for a whopping 20% of all foot problems.
Our team at Neuhaus Foot and Ankle recognizes that pain relief is a top priority when you have an ingrown toenail. We offer pain relief at any of our 13 locations across Tennessee.
In the following blog, we explore ingrown toenails, including how they form, how we treat them, why treatment is important, and how to prevent them. Let’s get started.
As the name suggests, an ingrown toenail is one in which the edges grow into the flesh surrounding the nail. Ingrown toenails almost always occur in your big toes, but they can also affect other toenails.
In many cases, an ingrown toenail is due to poor trimming techniques — you cut the nail too short and taper the edges. That said, they can also occur because you have overly curved toenails, which tend to grow into the flesh around your toe no matter how you trim them.
No matter how they occur, ingrown toenails can be incredibly painful.
If you’ve developed a painful ingrown toenail, you want relief quickly. You can try to trim away the piece of nail that’s digging into your flesh, but many of our patients don’t have the proper tools for the job. The pain may also be such that anytime you go near the nail, you need to stop.
In these cases, a quick visit to our office is the perfect solution. We have the right tools, including topical anesthetics, as well as the expertise to quickly snip away the piece of toenail buried in your flesh.
If you have chronic problems with ingrown toenails, we recommend coming in for a procedure where we remove the side of the nail down to the bed to prevent further nail growth.
If you have a circulation issue in your lower limbs due to peripheral neuropathy or peripheral artery disease, it’s essential that you seek our help for every foot issue, including ingrown toenails.
Once we treat your ingrown toenail, you can take steps to avoid another painful occurrence in the future by:
If you have diabetes or another issue where you need to be hypervigilant about conditions like ingrown toenails, we suggest scheduling regular foot checks, during which we can trim your toenails correctly.
If you’d like to learn more about ingrown toenails or want treatment for an existing issue, please contact one of our 13 locations in Tennessee to schedule an appointment with one of our foot specialists.
