Ingrown toenails often start quietly, a slight twinge when you put your shoes on or a touch of redness in the corner of your nail. However, left untreated they can quickly turn into a painful and debilitating condition.

One of the most common foot conditions, ingrown toenails can be straightforward to manage – as long as you recognise the warning signs and deal with them early.

In this complete guide to ingrown toenails, we help you to understand their causes and give you an overview of the different treatment options.

What Is an Ingrown Toenail?

An ingrown toenail develops when the edge of your toenail grows into the surrounding skin, causing pain, inflammation and, in serious cases, infection. Any toe can be affected, though they’re most common on big toes.

Certain factors can increase your risk of developing ingrown toenails, including:

• Cutting nails too short or rounding the edges
• Poorly fitting shoes or socks that are too tight
• Trauma or injury to your toe
• Having naturally curved nails or excessively thick nails.

Early Warning Signs

At first, you might notice mild tenderness along one side of the nail, a little redness and swelling, or pain when your shoes press on the area. At this stage there are several steps you can take to calm things down:

• Soak your feet in warm, salty water to soften the skin and reduce the risk of infection
• If appropriate, gently push the skin away with a cotton wool bud or carefully lift the edge of the nail to relieve pain
• Dry thoroughly
• Wear comfortable, loose-fitting shoes and socks
• Take paracetamol or ibuprofen to ease the pain.

What you should never do is dig into the nail with scissors or another sharp implement, which can damage the skin and push the nail further in. If you are at all anxious about dealing with it, make a chiropody appointment so your nail can be trimmed and guided correctly, before infection sets in.

When Things Become Infected

If home treatment doesn’t work or the condition worsens, it’s time to seek professional help. At this stage, you may see increasing redness and swelling and feel a warmth or throbbing pain. Yellow or white discharge (pus) and an overgrowth of soft tissue, known as proud flesh, over the nail edge are both indications that infection has taken hold and immediate treatment is required.

This is particularly concerning if you have diabetes or circulation problems, as healing can be slower and there’s a greater risk of complications.

At this stage seeing a podiatrist, like Feet By Pody, is strongly recommended. For the majority of acute cases, non-invasive chiropody treatments may suffice, including:

• Using a special nail-cutting technique to remove part of the nail and encourage healthy regrowth.
• Placing a small piece of cotton between the ingrown edge and skin.
• Topical or oral antibiotics to prevent infection.

When Toenail Surgery Is the Best Option

If you’re suffering from painful or recurring ingrown toenails or the situation has reached the stage where conservative treatment is unlikely to fix it, you may need minor toenail surgery.

While this may sound alarming, rest assured that ingrown toenail surgery with a podiatrist is usually a quick, walk-in procedure carried out under local anaesthetic. The aim is to remove the part of the nail that keeps causing trouble, treat the root in that corner to prevent it growing back and allow the surrounding skin to heal comfortably.

What Happens During Ingrown Toenail Surgery?

At Feet By Pody, we perform two types of toenail surgery. For both, we first numb the toe using a local anaesthetic. Then we remove either one or both sides of the affected nail in a partial nail avulsion, or the entire nail in a total nail avulsion.

After removal, we treat the area with a chemical to prevent regrowth in the affected area, before applying a protective dressing.

Your toe will need several weeks to heal, and mild discomfort is normal after this type of surgery. But we’ll send you home with lots of advice on how to care for your toe and arrange helpful follow-up appointments to check everything is healing as it should.

For expert ingrown toenail treatment at our London foot clinics, book an appointment with Feet By Pody today.