Can your toenail fall off without you realising?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds2 is 18 and does long distance running. He has a really high pain threshold but on one of his toes there is a black area where the toenail should be. I can't tell if the toenail has fallen off and left a scab or if his toenail has gone black from a bruise or something like that. Ds said he didn't notice getting injured and he hasn't dropped anything on his toe. There is no swelling or bruising anywhere else.

I would feel silly asking the gp to look at a scab, especially when there is a huge shortage of appointments but it's hard to know what it is and if it needs treatment when ds has no idea how it happened and hasn't felt any pain.

Surely if his toenail had fallen off he would have felt something. I remember my dad losing his toenail once and he was in agony and there was a lot of blood.

If DS doesn't want to go to the GP, how about a podiatrist?

I’d say it could, yes.
I had a nail removed once because most of it was hanging off anyway. Didn’t feel a thing.

If it's something hard that looks like a scab, it's probably his toenail with old bleeding underneath. Easy to damage your nail bed when running or hiking, and after the damage is done it won't hurt. Just leave it be, it will probably just fall off painlessly in a few weeks and there will be a new one growing underneath.

And maybe he needs to cut his toenails more often, or buy bigger shoes.

Both my big toe nails fell off once, no pain at all.

It was caused by wearing trainers that were too small at a day long festival. If I recall, they went black before eventually falling off. They regrew with no issues.

Thankyou. I will check his shoes to see if he needs bigger ones and keep an eye on his toe.

This is common for distance runners. It could be that he needs half a size bigger in his running shoes. I seem to recall that is it is from the repeated knocking of his toe against the shoe while running.

He's 18. Surely he can check if he is wearing the right size shoes?

Running long distances does that to your nails, but I don't think he needs to see a GP, or anyone else, unless he's in pain.

He probably needs shoes that are half a size bigger or have a deeper toe box.

I’m a long distance runner. Absolutely yes. I regularly have manky or missing nails 😂 he does need to be sizing up in running shoes but I suspect he knows that. Is he road or trail?
my last one hung on after Hadrians wall half marathon for an admirable 5 months. Then one night it just fell off. Much to the family’s disgust 😂 .
it’ll grow back!

When I met my DP 5 years ago I don’t as missing two nails. I painted where they should be with nail varnish for a few months, he never noticed!

Yes, easily.

Very common for runners to loose toenails. Google lacing techniques. There's different ways to tie laces depending on foot type. There's one to prevent black toenails for runners and walkers. Worth a try

We lost a roof tile once and didn't notice it.
A neighbour pointed it out to us.

My little toenails fell off randomly after having HFM. I wouldn’t have realised had I not been touching my foot at the time and realised it was quite literally just hanging off, check the others and my other little toe just.. fell off when I touched it basically 🤣 so I guess its
possible.

😂😂😂

Gross but I’ve lost a big toe nail several times. 😬 Running, possibly with slightly too tight shoes (since sized up!) and combo with a bit of fungal nail infection I think. It doesn’t hurt at all - only gross.