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An ingrown toenail is a common problem that affects people of all ages. About 20% of patients who contact their family doctor about foot pain do so because of an ingrown toenail.
A normal, healthy toenail sits flat and straight on the bed of your toe. However, due to a variety of potential causes, your nail may actually grow into the nail bed or into the skin on the side of the nail bed.
At Advanced Foot & Ankle Center, our board-certified podiatrists diagnose and treat ingrown toenails at our offices throughout Utah. We encourage you to either tend to your ingrown toenail or see us for treatment rather than hoping it will go away on its own.
Why shouldn’t you ignore an ingrown toenail? Here are just a few reasons.
It’s not normal for your nails to grow into your skin. Although you can develop ingrown nails at any age, they usually appear in the teen years, young adulthood, and old age.
Why is there such a spread between the most afflicted age groups? Young people are most likely to develop them because they’re extremely active and their feet sweat more often, probably due to hormonal changes.
Sweat makes both the toe skin and the nails extra soft. Soft nails can split, especially when you’re active. Those split, splintered nails then puncture the softened side skin of the nail bed.
Older people are more prone to ingrown nails for almost the exact opposite reasons. First, they tend to be less flexible and less active, so they can’t care for their feet as well. Second, nails become hard and brittle with age, which can again lead to splitting and puncturing.
In addition, you can develop an ingrown toenail after foot trauma. You might also develop one if you wear shoes that squeeze your toes. Rounding off your toenails with a nail file instead of cutting them square can also cause the nail to grown into the side skin.
Without treatment, a mild ingrown toenail can progress to a more severe phase. When you come to a podiatrist, they classify your ingrown toenail into three stages:
Your nail grew into the side of the nail bed. It’s inflamed and hurts a bit.
Inflamed new tissue, known as granulation tissue, has grown over the wound. The granulation tissue weeps pus. The area might be quite inflamed and red.
The toe is even more inflamed and the pus increases. The granulation tissue grows over a larger portion of the nail.
The inflammation in your toe can spread throughout your body via your bloodstream, particularly if you have a compromised immune system. The open wound on your toe may also collect bacteria, which could cause either a local or systemic infection.
A serious condition called cellulitis can occur if the infection affects deeper layers of your skin. Signs of cellulitis are skin that’s:
A sign that your ingrown toenail has become infected is if you feel fatigued or develop a fever. Contact your doctor right away if you feel feverish or lightheaded, if your rash spreads, or if you suspect that you have an infection.
If you have diabetes, you’re at risk for a more severe stage of ingrown toenail because you probably didn’t notice it at its earliest stage. When you have diabetes, the nerves in your feet may be damaged, a condition called peripheral neuropathy. You can get injured without feeling pain.
Any other circulatory condition or neuropathy that affects your feet also puts you at risk for the complications of a “simple” ingrown toenail. Be sure to schedule regular diabetic foot care appointments at our office so we can identify and treat ingrown toenails and other potential problems.
Don’t ignore your ingrown nail. If it doesn’t heal within a few days, gets worse, or is painful, call our team nearest you or book your appointment online for ingrown toenail care or a diabetic foot exam.
