Toe Nail Fungus; Do OTC remedies work?

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I have self diagnosed fungus in both my big toes, and spent £18 on a bottle of Nailiner 2in1.

Will it work, or after 4 weeks of 2x a day application will I still have manky toes?

Any experience or advice?

Watching with interest. I have it on each toe on one foot. I've tried all sorts.

It takes ages, like months, and you have to be absolutely disciplined about filing the nails back and applying the stuff every day.

Rather disgustingly fungus is more closely related to us than bacteria are, so it's hard to kill without killing our own body cells.

To stop it spreading to adjacent nails use something like this stuff on all the other nails
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124884868901?hash=item1d13b7df25:g:0z0AAOSwc1ZhM3e8

I wish I had started paying attention to this at the end of last summer and dealt with it during the winter shoes period!

The only thing that helped mine was (weirdly) Vicks vaporub put on twice a day

Honestly, it will do very little. It might reduce the speed of spread but it’d be a miracle for it to be gone in 4wks. I got a fungal nail infection from running trainers around 5yrs ago and have been religiously battling it with OTC and folk remedies like Vicks ever since. All they have done is halt the spread to other nails but the infected nail is still infected and if the products worked as advertised, the infection should’ve ‘grown out’ by now and I should be infection free.

I have followed the instructions to the letter and applied the products as directed, it’s just fungal nail infections are hard to treat. I’m reluctant to visit the GP about it because I know they don’t like to prescribe the terbinafine pills due to the liver damage risks. I may be coming close though, there’s only so long you can keep plodding with these things.

None of them worked for me. Terbinafine cleared mine up.

Not a recognised cure but worked on 3x fingernails in our house. Zap it with a phillips lumea. Worked brilliantly and quickly!

No it’s won’t work, the only thing that will clear it is the tablets from the doctor

Amoralfine works, (can be bought otc as well as prescription) but it takes a year of filing and painting. Not a month

Tea tree oil works for me. It's the only thing that has.

DS has had fungal toenails from the age of 5. We’ve tried every OTC and old wives tale remedy, used them all religiously, following all instructions to the letter, none have worked.

The GP is reluctant to prescribe Terbafine even now DS is 18 as it’s purely a cosmetic issue.

We are looking into laser treatment but it’s costly.

A relative told me that a supplement called ALA - alpha lipoic acid had cured his lifelong fungal nails, it was a side effect, he was taking it to improve his joints, says it took maybe a year though. I am currently trialling the same.

I did 2 years of lockdown religiously daily painting various topicals on and filing down - to no effect at all.

Interested to try the Lumea on it…

Tea tree oil worked on mine - painted on twice a day for a few months, plus some filing.

This is so depressing. I had terbafine once with a fingernail one and never again.

But I have such a manky little toenail. I'd honestly rather it was removed, its like its just getting thicker and growing up...😞

It worked fine for me- I can’t remember how long it took but I would guess it was a month or six weeks of applying the stuff and filing the affected nails every day. It was grim but it can work. I’d had them for years, got rid of it about a year ago and had no problems since. You’ve spent £18 on it so you may as well give it a go!

I have been using the Boots fungal nail stuff on DS, has worked but have gone through a few bottles.

I've tried it and using for 3 months every day did thin the nail down so it looked a bit better but never really got rid of it. After a few goes, I've given up and just file it into a better shape and slap some polish on top.

I've tried many of these (including pills from the GP) and non of them worked.

@RamblingFar

None of them worked for me. Terbinafine cleared mine up.

NHS won't prescribe the OTC stuff any more as not enough evidence it works. Terbinafine does work, but you may need blood tests as it can be quite harsh (for reasons PP mentioned).

Mixed results, then.

When did this become so common? I had never heard of it before.

I say discolouration on my toe nails last summer and assumed it was because I never took my nail varnish off so just left it.

It seems to cover about half of each big toe mail, it doesn’t go down to the bottom.

Vicks twice a day worked for me. Taped gauze around the toe up and let it do its work. It takes time but my big toenail was lovely again in time for summer.

I had this, nothing OTC worked, I went to a podiatrist who diagnosed me, wrote me a letter for the doctor for £50, collected prescription from reception and took tablets, probably Terbinafine, for a few months. Cleared it straight up and it has not returned. I am delighted as all toenails were affected, manky, couldn't show them in summer, have a pedicure, horrible.

DH is using fungal cream from the same podiatrist, it seems to be working for him, but that was also not available OTC.

I was seriously contemplating having the offending tonails removed, would they grow back infection free? X

Daktarin cream. Complete game changer as far as I am concerned. It won't make your nails beautiful in a month - they need to grow out - but I saw an improvement within a few weeks.