Important Facts about Ingrown Toenail Surgery

You’ve probably heard people suffering from ingrown toenail and how painful it can be. Before delving into the surgery and treatment for ingrown toenails, let us first understand what it is, its causes and prevention.

What is Ingrown Toenail?

An ingrown toenail is formed when the edge of one’s nails starts to grow down, cutting into the surrounding skin. This problem occurs mostly in teenagers and young adults, but anyone can get an ingrown toenail at any stage in life.

Signs or Symptoms

There is not really any symptom with ingrown toenails, but you will know when it hits you; when the surrounding skin in your toenail gets hard, swollen or tender to the touch that eventually becomes very painful especially when some pressure is applied in the area.

There is no need to seek a doctor for those individuals with minor issues of ingrown toenails, but if the symptoms do get worse and home remedies or over-the-counter pain relievers won’t work, then it is time to seek some medical advice – get help and get those painful ingrown toenail problem removed. In Singapore, there is a team of Orthopaedic specialists that has been servicing clients for years in areas such as ingrown toenails, lower and back pain, bone tumor s and more. They have had cases where patients could hardly walk and they advise to undergo ingrown toenail surgery.

Causes

So what can contribute to the formation of the ingrown toenails? Well, there are several factors that could lead to the problem such as:

• Wearing tight-fitting shoes, which is common among women forcing the skin around your toenails to brush around it.
• Wrong cutting of the toenails can also lead to ingrown toenails. There is a proper way of cutting the toenails and it is not the same way you cut your fingernails.
• Another cause can be due to an injury to the toenail – a ripped nail or a peeled-off edge of the nail that can leave the toenail deformed.
• Fungal infections can also be a culprit. As a matter of fact, it is common than you think.
• Sweaty feet – the sweat can cause the skin to go soft and easy for the nails to grow into. This occurs mostly to sporty people.
• Fan-shaped nails are likely to get ingrown toenails as well.

Treating Ingrown Toenails

In the event that you have an ingrown toenail, you can take some oral antibiotics to prevent any onset of infection. If in case the pain of your ingrown toenail is intolerable and the oral antibiotics is not helping, then it is time to have a doctor check and treat the problem. What would mostly happen is that the doctor will have to remove 10% of your toenail.

When undergoing the procedure, the doctor will administer local anesthesia to completely block the area from pain and you get to stay awake through the whole ingrown toenail surgery procedure.

So if in case you feel some tenderness or pain around the edge of your toenail on your big toe, try first with taking some antibiotics to stop any further infection, but if the symptoms persists, then it’s time to seek the help of a medical professional.