My toenails are wider than my nail bed. What do I do? (Warning photos)

[JudjyPants]

I've spent far too long cutting my big toenails off at the corners at the top so they don't dig into my flesh once they're full length.

Is there any thing I can do myself to sort this once and for all?

Pictures attached.

So normally I'd cut off that corner that my nail scissors are lifting as it gets stopped by the skin in the other photo and can't grow beyond it so it digs in.

You can see on my first photo the part of my nail that's normally totally covered at the sides by skin as it's got dead skin on it (white flaky bit)

Just go to a podiatrist and get them to sort it, they can trim the sides in, pull out the root and inject the bottoms by the nail bed to stop them growing out that wide again

I was worried that my be the only option.

Sounds expensive!!

If I've understood your post (I'm sorry if I haven't!) you trimming it down might be causing some of the problem as you're giving it the chance to 'ingrow'. I had this problem ish a while ago and put something under the corner of my nail after a foot soak to lift it from poking into my toe skin and just focused on growing it past the point of hurting and now it's fine. Is there any chance of you doing that?

I'd probably see a podiatrist for some proper advice though

My son had the same problem. He was referred on the NHS and they said no cutting or filing technique would ever work as the nail was wider than the toe.
He had a local and the cut a strip down each side of the toe. This was seven years ago and no problem since.
I had a different nail problem, my nails were curling around at the sides underneath themselves. I had a similar procedure down the sides of my big toes and the whole nail taken from the second toes. Such a relief to no longer have pain.

I agree, my wife lost all her toe nails while having chemotherapy and so we both started going to a podiatrist.

It is good to have an expert look at our toes nails and treat them in the correct way. It costs us £20 each every 6 or 7 weeks but even in these hard times we feel it is worth the cash.
Get an expert to look rather than risk doing damage,

If you need a bit of relief while waiting to see a podiatrist, you could try cutting a "V" into the middle of the edge of your nail, rather than taking chunks out of the sides.

Sounds weird, looks weird, but I swear whenever my big toe is hurting and making me limp that it brings instant (free) relief.

If it's borderline you may not need treatment. Just wait it out. I used to get sore there, then was very very disciplined for a few months and managed to get the corners up past the skin. Soak your feet. Rub the skin away at the corners. Free the corner gently.
Repeat until the nail is free and keep them longer at the edges in future.

Fingers crossed!