Ingrown toenail

[DasLeben]

Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, but then come right on back. Any suggestions on how to take care of this damn thing?

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, and then come right on back.

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[/ QUOTE ]

Do a search on it on webmd or one of those other med info sites.

Some of them have very good information on them and steps you can take to help fix it without going to a doctor if it does not meed some specific conditions. If it is pretty far along though (like you can only see half the nail) you need to see one.

[jakethebake]

There was a thread about a month ago on this. Cut the toenail strait across, bot curved so the corners grow outinstead of into the toe.

[CrazyEyez]

I had one once that hurt like a mother. I didn't do anything about it for a long time. Then I finally went to the doc and he rectified it with what turned out to be a completely painless procedure. Ohhhh, the sweet relief. I kicked myself for not going sooner. Came back once a few years later. I went back in and had it fixed again, and haven't had a problem since.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
There was a thread about a month ago on this. Cut the toenail strait across, bot curved so the corners grow outinstead of into the toe.

[/ QUOTE ]

It is amazing how many people don't know how to cut their toenails.

Although most of us learn how after we get an ingrown toenail and google it /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[steelcmg]

just cut the toe off

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
i should stay out of oot

[/ QUOTE ]

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
It is amazing how many people don't know how to cut their toenails.

Although most of us learn how after we get an ingrown toenail and google it /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's because most people were never Marines. One useful thing youn learn is how to take care of your damn feet!

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
I had one once that hurt like a mother. I didn't do anything about it for a long time. Then I finally went to the doc and he rectified it with what turned out to be a completely painless procedure. Ohhhh, the sweet relief. I kicked myself for not going sooner. Came back once a few years later. I went back in and had it fixed again, and haven't had a problem since.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm...what was the procedure? That left toe has been killing me for months now. First it was the left part of my toe, and now it's the right. Somehow the left side got better, but I'm not exactly sure how.

I'm trying to avoid a doctor's visit, considering I don't yet have medical insurance (starting a new job on Saturday, but didn't stay more than the required 6 months at my last one). :/

[jakethebake]

Thney usually just remove the part of the toenail thats growing into the toe. It's pretty simple. Takes like 10 minutes.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It is amazing how many people don't know how to cut their toenails.

Although most of us learn how after we get an ingrown toenail and google it /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's because most people were never Marines. One useful thing youn learn is how to take care of your damn feet!

[/ QUOTE ]

That brings the total number of reasons for joining the marines up to:

1

/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
Thney usually just remove the part of the toenail thats growing into the toe. It's pretty simple. Takes like 10 minutes.

[/ QUOTE ]

But isn't needed if it isn't bad enough. You can roll up a small portion of a cotton bud and use it to seperate it from the nearby skin to get it to grow over instead of into it. If he wants to fix it himself webmd etc have plenty of information but he is definitely better going to a doctor if it does need to be cut.

[CrazyEyez]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I had one once that hurt like a mother. I didn't do anything about it for a long time. Then I finally went to the doc and he rectified it with what turned out to be a completely painless procedure. Ohhhh, the sweet relief. I kicked myself for not going sooner. Came back once a few years later. I went back in and had it fixed again, and haven't had a problem since.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm...what was the procedure? That left toe has been killing me for months now. First it was the left part of my toe, and now it's the right. Somehow the left side got better, but I'm not exactly sure how.

I'm trying to avoid a doctor's visit, considering I don't yet have medical insurance (starting a new job on Saturday, but didn't stay more than the required 6 months at my last one). :/

[/ QUOTE ]
As stabn or someone said, it depends how bad it is, but mine was pretty bad (red and puss-y*). He gave my toe a shot of novacaine, then cut the whole side of the nail off all the way down. Didn't feel a thing.

*How do you spell this? As in "having lots of puss?"

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, but then come right on back. Any suggestions on how to take care of this damn thing?

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[/ QUOTE ]
You better get this thing taken care of. I know a girl who just almost lost her big toe to an ingrown nail. In the end, she didn't have to get it amputated, but she lost the nail and was in a cast-like thing for a month+.

[Hamish McBagpipe]

Listen, I've had this and unless your toe needs amputation this is how to get rid of it. Take some cotton from a cotton ball or even a q-tip and roll it up into loose little balls and stuff it under the toenail by the impaction. Repeat until enough cotton is forcing the nail up a bit. This causes the nail to grow out from the side of your toe and provides great relief while doing so, you'll see. Just make sure to remove the cotton daily as it will get [censored] rank if you leave it in there. My doctor showed me this when I was about 14, worked like a charm.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I had one once that hurt like a mother. I didn't do anything about it for a long time. Then I finally went to the doc and he rectified it with what turned out to be a completely painless procedure. Ohhhh, the sweet relief. I kicked myself for not going sooner. Came back once a few years later. I went back in and had it fixed again, and haven't had a problem since.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm...what was the procedure? That left toe has been killing me for months now. First it was the left part of my toe, and now it's the right. Somehow the left side got better, but I'm not exactly sure how.

I'm trying to avoid a doctor's visit, considering I don't yet have medical insurance (starting a new job on Saturday, but didn't stay more than the required 6 months at my last one). :/

[/ QUOTE ]
As stabn or someone said, it depends how bad it is, but mine was pretty bad (red and puss-y*). He gave my toe a shot of novacaine, then cut the whole side of the nail off all the way down. Didn't feel a thing.

*How do you spell this? As in "having lots of puss?"

[/ QUOTE ]

I fixed mine myself and it was red and swollen on the side and had plenty of pus. I think mine was pretty borderline as to whether or not i should have gone to the doctor to get it fixed. I had a sharp edge that i think contributed to it digging into the side of my toe and really irritating the skin long before it really dug into it to the point that you would usually get pus. This made it a lot easier to fix on my own than most seriously inflamed ingrown toe nails (btw pus filled on inflamed).

[Hamish McBagpipe]

[ QUOTE ]
I fixed mine myself and it was red and swollen on the side and had plenty of pus. I think mine was pretty borderline as to whether or not i should have gone to the doctor to get it fixed. I had a sharp edge that i think contributed to it digging into the side of my toe and really irritating the skin long before it really dug into it to the point that you would usually get pus. This made it a lot easier to fix on my own than most seriously inflamed ingrown toe nails (btw pus filled on inflamed).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly the situation that can be fixed with the solution I described above. Inflamed, puss-filled, irritating, stinky, sore, cracked-skin. I never want to have it again for sure.

[stabn]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I fixed mine myself and it was red and swollen on the side and had plenty of pus. I think mine was pretty borderline as to whether or not i should have gone to the doctor to get it fixed. I had a sharp edge that i think contributed to it digging into the side of my toe and really irritating the skin long before it really dug into it to the point that you would usually get pus. This made it a lot easier to fix on my own than most seriously inflamed ingrown toe nails (btw pus filled on inflamed).

[/ QUOTE ]

This is exactly the situation that can be fixed with the solution I described above. Inflamed, puss-filled, irritating, stinky, sore, cracked-skin. I never want to have it again for sure.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, it sucks, but maybe you missed this:

Where i describe the same thing briefly (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=3355737&page=0&view=c ollapsed&sb=5&o=&vc=1)

[Brainwalter]

[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, but then come right on back. Any suggestions on how to take care of this damn thing?

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[/ QUOTE ]

Need pics please.

[GrannyMae]

[ QUOTE ]
I know a girl who just almost lost her big toe to an ingrown nail. In the end, she didn't have to get it amputated, but she lost the nail and was in a cast-like thing for a month+.



[/ QUOTE ]

what kind of skank would let a nail get so bad?

you have filthy friends

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, but then come right on back. Any suggestions on how to take care of this damn thing?

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[/ QUOTE ]

Need pics please.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm. This could be arranged...

[Brainwalter]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Has anyone had one of these before? I have one on my left big toe, and it's been around for at least a couple months now. I'm keeping it clean, and it'll get better for a couple weeks, but then come right on back. Any suggestions on how to take care of this damn thing?

I don't really want surgery either. :/

[/ QUOTE ]

Need pics please.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm. This could be arranged...

[/ QUOTE ]

K Thx.

[kipin]

I used to have a bad problem with this (starting when I was like 8 years old) on both sides of my big toes. They would always be bloody and pussy and hurt like hell. When I was like 16 or 17 I went to a foot doctor, they first took a look, told me I was a candidate to have the surgery.

Came back like a week later, gave me some novocaine (this hurt a bit as they put a needle directly in the inflamed skin) then cut down to side all the way to the root on both sides of both toes. After he removed the nail, he put some sort of solution down inside my toe to stop the nail from ever growing back. Havn't had a problem since.

I must add one of the toes hurt a lot when it was being cut out because the novocaine didn't work properly because my toe was infected and above working temperature of the novocaine so that did hurt a bit, but the procedure is DEFINITELY worth having if you are in constant pain.

[Al P]

So you don't have a nail on your big toe?

[kipin]

No I have nails on both my toes, but the sides of the nails have been cut out. My toes are a bit different shaped than the normal toe to begin with, but now I just sort of have this area on the very side of my toe with no nail covering it, which is fine.

[wonderwes]

I have an issue with hand/toe nails. I can not stand long nails. If everyone had to put what would drive them nuts all day, this would be on my top 3 list. I keep all my nails just down right to where the physical skin stops with the nail. All 10 nails I have are just cut down as short as they can reasonably go.

An ingrown toe nail, esp if its a bad one, will only get worse. You might think it will eventually heal but it will continue to become more painful. I had my big toe once get a bad one, to where the skin was trying to regrow across the entire left side of the nail. Since it was full pink skin, it was impossible to cut the skin off to get to the nail (too much pain from the nerves). I went to the doctor, he gave me the shot, he cut out that beast in 10 min. I looked at it afterwards, that cut out was massive. If you are in physical pain (as in a brief touch by your finger will cause horrid pain on your foot) get it fixed instantly. After the procedure it will heal quickly, and you will feel so much better.

A tip to see how bad the nail grown into the skin, try using a toothpick to see where the nail has gone. And use neosporin constantly.

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
A tip to see how bad the nail grown into the skin, try using a toothpick to see where the nail has gone. And use neosporin constantly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been keeping it clean better and have been using Neosporin a lot in the past few days. The difference is remarkable. It looked terrible a few days back, but now it's feeling better and is looking more normal again.

[jakethebake]

You can soak it in peroxide too.

[bravos1]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I know a girl who just almost lost her big toe to an ingrown nail. In the end, she didn't have to get it amputated, but she lost the nail and was in a cast-like thing for a month+.



[/ QUOTE ]

what kind of skank would let a nail get so bad?

you have filthy friends

[/ QUOTE ]

Imagine what her snatch was like /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
I used to have a bad problem with this (starting when I was like 8 years old) on both sides of my big toes. They would always be bloody and pussy and hurt like hell. When I was like 16 or 17 I went to a foot doctor, they first took a look, told me I was a candidate to have the surgery.

Came back like a week later, gave me some novocaine (this hurt a bit as they put a needle directly in the inflamed skin) then cut down to side all the way to the root on both sides of both toes. After he removed the nail, he put some sort of solution down inside my toe to stop the nail from ever growing back. Havn't had a problem since.

I must add one of the toes hurt a lot when it was being cut out because the novocaine didn't work properly because my toe was infected and above working temperature of the novocaine so that did hurt a bit, but the procedure is DEFINITELY worth having if you are in constant pain.

[/ QUOTE ]

I had this done on one side for my big toe when I was 17 or so. The lidocane (lidacane?) didn't work for [censored], so he had to inject it like 4 or 5 more times before I let me cut it. My nail is still kinda [censored] up, in that there is an obvious difference between my old nail and where they cut (like a seam that has normal toe on one side, and slightly whiter nail on the other side).

This was 6 years ago.

Freakin

[UseThePeenEnd]

Didnt bother to read the whole thread so dont know if this has been suggested.

I had these on both feet. One I was able to fix myself by once or twice a day packing under the ingrown edge with alcohol-soaked cotton. This hurt. It eventually got to the point that it was no longer ingrown. You have to be clean and careful with this- obviously when you are stuffing anything into an already infected pocket, you can make the infection worse.

The other just recurred and recurred until finally my MD (who did a lot of this in the Korean War) just cut off about the outer 20% of the nail and killed the outer portion of the nail root with silver nitrate. This hurt too lol.

[wonderwes]

[ QUOTE ]


I've been keeping it clean better and have been using Neosporin a lot in the past few days. The difference is remarkable. It looked terrible a few days back, but now it's feeling better and is looking more normal again.

[/ QUOTE ]

If the nail is still physically digging into the skin, it wont get better. The piece of nail needs to be physically ripped out. It sounds like the skin around it is healing (going from pink to normal color) but it is still dug in there.

Many times these nails become just a sharp narrow point to where you can't even physically see it. However using the clippers/toothpick you can still physically feel it there. Whats weird is the skin around your toe kinda bonds with the nail so its hard to tell what nail and what is clumped skin. I ripped out a bad nail where it tore a small lining of the skin with it. Its fine it will grow back. However I could feel just with my fingers how sharp the point was that I ripped out. No wonder there was sharp pain in my toe.

If you can find the edge of the nail I like to slowly see if I can make the nail pull up (like vertically upward). If you can do that, get the clippers dont cut it out, rather have the clippers grab that edge and see if you can slowly pull the edge of it out. Kinda like peeling the whole side out from the top of the nail to like half way down the physical nail. You will have to do it very slowly.

It will not get better until that piece of the nail is out of your skin. If it is a huge nail, I still recommend getting that thing professionally fixed. Personally these things just drive me nuts.

Toothpicks do help.

[wonderwes]

Oh yeah, soaking the foot in hot water for 45 sec in the bathtub will also help in trying to cut it out.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, soaking the foot in hot water for 45 sec in the bathtub will also help in trying to cut it out.

[/ QUOTE ]

And add some epsom salts to the water

[MyTurn2Raise]

I have these bad...2 surgeries for both big toes and still no good. The mothers come back. The doctor said I would have this problem my whole life. He even poured the liquid in the root to kill off the nail, but it came back.

One problem was I didn't get it taken care of right away. I didn't want to miss any time from sports. Bad judgment.
Go see a doctor if it last more than a month.

On the flip side, I am very clean and preventative about every part of my body now.

Previous advice-cotton, alcohol, neosporin, cutting straight across, warm epsom salt baths, peroxide....all good

I've researched this big time and these seem to either alleviate or eliminate problems.

[peachy]

usually when u try and do it urself u just make it worse if u dont know how to cut it...go to a nail salon and get a pedicure - i am 100% serious...its better them doing it than u and a better option than surgery for now

[lighterjobs]

I used to get them when I was younger and didn't really know how to cut my toenails. Had to get one surgically removed and the part that was in my skin was bigger than the rest of my toenail. On a sidenote, a guy that I work with told me he had to get his ingrown hairs surgically removed and showed me a few of them. Disgusting.

[SuitedSixes]

I am the ingrown toenail master!

I once had one that actually grew through the top (front) of my toe. It looked like a blood blister, but when I put pressure on it, the nail popped through.

Non-insurance options (not healthy, but cheap):
Infection is your friend. Once you get some of the pus out, you'll have room to work with to dig it out. I cut vertically as much as I can, grab the loose end with pliers and pull.

Insurance options:
I've had the removal procedure probably five times. They'll put two injections at the base of your toe (which hurt like hell, you can feel the pressure of the liquid on the inside bottom of your toe). Once you are numb they'll start jabbing more shots in your toes, but by then you don't care. Then they'll cut straight down the middle and remove the bad half. I was miserable for five days after I had it done the first time. Subsequent times have not been bad at all, and I was mad that I waited getting it done.

If it is chronic, they can cauterize the nail bed which also hurts like hell. They'll do the procedure as above, but then stick some junk on a wooden q-tip and jab it in to where your nail used to be. I haven't had to go back in since I had this done.

[lighterjobs]

[ QUOTE ]
I once had one that actually grew through the top (front) of my toe. It looked like a blood blister, but when I put pressure on it, the nail popped through.

[/ QUOTE ]

we have a winner