Ingrown Toenail Prevention - Tedious and Gross

[NotQuiteCockney]

Ok, it's breathtakingly tedious, but I need some reassurance/advice. Toenails are meant to be cut horizontally, right? So there are corners, so you don't get ingrown toenails?

I used to cut mine rounded, but if I went a little while without cutting, they would go wrong. So I decided (partly as a Future Diabetic) to grow them out, to a normal length, so they'd stop going ingrown.

One seems to be fine, but the other really bloody hurts. There's no pointy bit getting stuck, it's just the flesh around it getting pushed out of the way.

Is there anything I can do to help it sort itself out?

[cjmummy]

I was once told that as soon as you think you have the beginning of an ingrown toenail, put a tiny piece of cotton wool underneath the sore corner of the nail (you may need to use some tweezers or scissors to wedge it in) then it would help bring it back out again. It always seems to have worked for me. If nothing else it cushions it slightly.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Hmm, I should probably do that. But there isn't much of a corner of nail there ... still, it might protect the flesh.

When will it sort itself out? I've been growing the damn things out for weeks ...

[juuule]

cut a small v shaped nick into the middle of the toenail and the nail will grow away from the sides to close the gap in the middle. It worked for my ds.

[NotQuiteCockney]

Oooh, that sounds not-painful and likely-to-work. Will try it!

[apronstrings]

I have had trouble with in growing toe nails off and on for years - last year my toe ended up getting infected because of it and it turned really nasty. Last week - as toe was going red again etc on the advice of a friend I went to a podiatrist who there and then gave me a local anesthetic, and sliced out about 3-4 mm of the nail form top to bottom and then applied acid to the nail bed beneath. It was instantly pain free - even when the drugs wore off. Your skin grows up to meet the new nail ( mine has almost done this already) and according to the podiatrist in 95% of people this is a cure - you never have any trouble with it again. I am so excited about this - I remember going to the school nurse with the problem 23 ish years ago and in about 40 mins I ma prob cured of all toe pain for life!!! Sorry if its a long post -
don't understand why dr. had never referred me or suggested it.

[apronstrings]

incidently my friend who has had it done to both feet and suggested it to me is diabetic. The school nurse told me to cut v's years ago - i think it works to some extent - good luck because it absolutely bloody kills!!!!

[NotQuiteCockney]

My bad one only really hurts when I bash it. I do worry about long-term foot health, it's good to know there's a fix, other than this one.