Reasons for ingrown big toe nails

The situation where the big toe nail grows into the flesh may be caused by paronychia or ingrown toenail, so if you encounter this situation in life, you should seek timely treatment. Because the big toe nail growing into the flesh may cause inflammation and erosion of the big toe, we hope that everyone should have a certain understanding of the treatment methods for the big toe nail growing into the flesh in life.

Paronychia and ingrown toenails will not heal on their own if not treated, and will become festered over time. If the toenails are not treated for a long time, they will become seriously deformed, leading to damage to the nail bed and eventually toenails being missing. In severe cases, the nails may even stop growing. If the toenail becomes inflamed repeatedly, it may easily cause subungual abscess, and in severe cases it may cause osteomyelitis. Some patients do not receive treatment for a long time, which leads to reduced immunity in the nail area and loss of the nail's natural protective barrier function, resulting in infection with the fungal disease onychomycosis (onychomycosis). Onychomycosis is a highly contagious fungal disease. If not treated, it may cause a series of diseases such as tinea capitis and tinea manuum.

Ingrown toenails are toenails that grow into the flesh. Ingrown toenails are a common foot disease. They occur when the toenails are trimmed too deep or too low, and when the toes are squeezed by wearing pointed, skinny shoes. In the early stage, ingrown toenails only cause pain. Ingrown toenails are very likely to be complicated by nail groove tissue infection, which is clinically called paronychia. At this time, there is obvious redness, swelling, and heat in the local area, accompanied by severe pain. After suppuration, purulent secretions will flow out locally.

The current effective treatment method is to cut off a small strip of the edge of the toenail, and then treat the germinal layer of the nail root so that no new nail will grow at the edge of the toenail, so as to achieve the purpose of completely curing the ingrown toenail. This operation takes a short time, has a short recovery time, causes little trauma, and causes less pain to the patient after the operation. It does not affect bathing or foot washing after the operation.

Misconceptions about treating ingrown toenails:

Misconception 1: Pedicure is used to treat ingrown toenails. Most people with ingrown toenails trim their own toenails at home, while those with better conditions go to pedicure centers to have their toenails trimmed. Both of the above methods require one to endure the pain and pick out the part of the toenail that has pierced the flesh, but after the toenail grows longer, it will still pierce the flesh. Due to repeated trimming, chronic stimulation of the nail groove tissue proliferates and thickens, making it easier for the nails to grow into the flesh. In addition, those pedicure places are not medical places and do not have strict disinfection measures, so it is easy to spread other diseases, such as onychomycosis.

Misconception 2: Repeated nail removal treatment. Some patients, especially when combined with paronychia, will go to the hospital for treatment. The routine practice of most hospitals is to perform nail extraction to treat ingrown toenails without doing any treatment on the germinal layer of the nail root, so that after the new toenail grows, it will still grow in the original direction and eventually grow into the flesh. Moreover, this method is very painful, takes a long time to heal, and most importantly, it cannot cure ingrown toenails.

If we are unlucky enough to encounter the big toe nail growing into the flesh in life, we should disinfect it in time, because the nail growing into the flesh may be infected by a lot of bacteria, so disinfection can prevent inflammation of the big toe. Moreover, many people have many misunderstandings about the methods of treating ingrown big toe nails.