Ingrown toenails gone bad
August 25, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
If you’ve ever had an ingrown toenail that got infected, you know how painful it can be. Some people are more prone to having ingrown nails than others and it can become quite a problem. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot that can be done for this other than actually removing the nail.
My son had this problem on the big toe of both feet. In one urgent care clinic, the doctor tried to remove part of the toenail on one foot and the whole experience was horrendously painful – and unsuccessful.
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Tags: Chronic pain blog, pain blog, ingrown toenails, infected ingrown nails, removing ingrown nails
Ingrown toenails gone bad
August 23, 2008 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
If you’ve ever had an ingrown toenail that got infected, you know how painful it can be. Some people are more prone to having ingrown nails than others and it can become quite a problem. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot that can be done for this other than actually removing the nail.
My son had this problem on the big toe of both feet. In one urgent care clinic, the doctor tried to remove part of the toenail on one foot and the whole experience was horrendously painful – and unsuccessful. After some incompetent treatment, I finally got him to see a podiatrist who removed both toe’s nails and my son has never had a problem since.
When the nail is removed, some podiatrists and surgeons remove only part of it, the part that edges along each side and part of the matrix (root), while others remove the whole nail and root. The problem with removing the whole nail and root is that the toe bed no longer has the nail for protection.
According to research published in a Turkish medical journal, most patients do well with only a partial removal. Researchers looked at 62 patients, evenly divided among men and women, who underwent a partial removal of the nail matrix. Only 4 patients had a recurrence of the ingrown nail within about 4 months of the procedure, while all other patients were back to their regular activities in less than 2 weeks. Of all the patients, including those who had recurring ingrown nails, only 2 patients were not satisfied with the results.
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Tags: Chronic pain blog, pain blog, ingrown toenails, infected ingrown nails, removing ingrown nails
