Ingrown toenails can be a very painful condition that often affect your daily activities. A painful ingrown toenail can also become infected. An infected ingrown toe nail termed “Paronychia” can cause severe pain along with redness and drainage at the site. As soon as you see a toenail start to develop these symptoms you should see a podiatrist for treatment. Ingrown toenails can be caused by a multitude of reasons:
Causes:
- Improperly fitted shoe gear which compresses the toes
- Improper nail care
- Trauma to the nail
- Genetics
- Deformity to the underlying bone
- Bacterial infection
- Predisposition in the nail bed
- Overgrowth of skin
- Disease to the nail bed
- Excess moisture to the nail bed
Signs and Symptoms of Paronychia
- Increase warmth
- Purulence or drainage
- Redness
- Pain on palpation
- Swelling
- Detachment of the nail
If you experience any of the symptoms for a painful ingrown nail or paronychia, you should get it checked out by a podiatrist. Treatment includes wedge resection of the affected nail, nail avulsion of the border or entire nail, or matrixectomy of the border of the nail. Many times ingrown nails can be chronic and reoccur, in this case a phenol matrixectomy can be performed to prevent the border of the nail from ever growing back. Daily epsom salt soaks can be beneficial along with an antibiotic in severe cases of paronychia. Don’t let a painful ingrown nail affect your daily life!
