Stop Ingrown Toenails From Coming Back
If you’ve ever had a sharp pain in your foot, specifically in your toes, you hopefully don’t just ignore it until it gets worse. If the pain is around the edge of your toenails (usually the big toes), this pain is typically caused by an ingrown toenail. While each case is different, there are different levels of pain as to how severe the ingrown toenail is.
Luckily, there are ways that you can prevent ingrown toenails from happening most of the time. When you cannot prevent ingrown toenails, it’s usually due to genetics or health conditions. Let’s take a look at some ways to spot an ingrown toenail before it gets severe and what you can do about it.
What Are Ingrown Toenails?
Ingrown toenails are usually painful because it occurs at the corner of the toe. The skin on the side of the toe begins growing over the top of your nail, or your toenail can also start growing downward into the skin. Which can become extremely painful.
Usually, this occurs on only one side of the toe, but in rare cases can occur on both sides at the same time. If you have diabetes, an ingrown toenail can become an even bigger issue if not taken care of sooner rather than later.
Symptoms of Ingrown Toenails
There are a few signs you can keep an eye out for to prevent an ingrown toenail from popping up and causing more pain than necessary:
- Pain or Tenderness
- Redness
- Swelling
- Infection
If you notice the skin next to the toenail becoming red and/or tender to the touch, chances are it’s developing into an ingrown toenail. Seeking treatment early could protect you from a lot of pain down the road.
What Causes Ingrown Toenails?
Different things may cause an ingrown toenail to form, whether a mild case or a more severe one. Here are some things that contribute to ingrown toenails:
- Incorrect footwear - wearing shoes that are too tight or narrow around your toes, or shoes that are too big and your toes keep sliding and impacting the front of the shoe with every step can lead to nail and foot issues.
- Improper nail trimming - if you cut your toenails too short and round them in the corners instead of straight across is a leading cause of ingrown toenails.
- Injury - a recent foot injury could aid in an ingrown toenail just from that part of the toe not healing properly or not growing back correctly.
- Hygiene - proper foot hygiene is important just for the general health of your feet and body. Not cleaning feet daily can end up causing some foot problems.
- Genetics - you can’t help your genetics, so it’s important to keep an eye out for foot issues and get treatment before those issues like ingrown toenails become severe.
- Posture - your posture has a big part in making sure that you're healthy. The way you walk, sit, or how you position your feet while you lounge or sleep may have affected them.
Why Does an Ingrown Toenail Keep Coming Back
There are a few reasons your ingrown toenail may keep coming back. First, genetics; the way your toenail grows is partly due to genetics. Does your family have a history of ingrown toenails? This can be a factor. The way you cut your toenails can be a cause of ingrown toenails. Cutting your toenails too short or digging into the sides of your toenails can cause ingrown toenails and keep them coming back. Wearing tight or narrow shoes can also cause ingrown toenails to return.
Ingrown Toenail Returning in Children
Ingrown toenails are common in children. Children suffer from ingrown toenails often due to the way they cut their toenails, pick at their nails, and wear tight shoes. Children should not cut their own toenails until they understand how to cut their toenails properly. Children's feet grow rapidly! Parents should check the size of their children's shoes every month to make sure it still fits correctly.
Treatment and Prevention
There are ways to prevent ingrown toenails from starting or becoming more severe:
- Shape - keep your toenails trimmed straight across. This keeps them on track to growing the proper way.
- Length - you don’t want to cut your nails too short. Leave some length at the end so that you can still ensure it keeps growing correctly.
- Fitted footwear - wear shoes that are a comfortable fit. Make sure the toe box is not too tight or narrow as this keeps them from rubbing against each other and helps with posture too. Also do not get shoes that are too big, which can make your toes slide into the front of the shoe with each step and cause injury to the nails.
- Hygiene - always make sure that your feet stay clean and file toenails to stay their healthiest.
Permanently Get Rid of Ingrown Toenails
If you’re suffering from ingrown toenails, give us a call today, and let’s get you back on your feet pain-free. There’s no reason that you should live with foot or ankle pain.
Ingrown toenail treatment is easy and should provide instant relief. If you are constantly getting ingrown toenails, we can discuss ways to prevent them permanently, like removing part of the nail matrix. Ingrown toenail surgery permanently keeps new tissue growth down around your problem area.
Ingrown Toenail Treatment in Surprise, Arizona
Whatever foot or ankle pain you are facing, we can get you taken care of and get you pain-free and treated. Fixing Feet Institute provides ingrown toenail treatment for Surprise, Arizona and surrounding cities including Phoenix, Glendale, El Mairage, Sun City, and Peoria. You don’t have to live with the consistent, sharp pains anymore, let us get you some long-term relief now.
