How Should You Cut Your Toenails for Avoiding Ingrown Toenails?

Julio Jones 2 years ago 3 min read

Your ingrown toenail would look like a round bulged rash on your nail’s sides. The noticeable trouble spot for your ingrown toenail would be the inside edge of your big toe, but it can also happen to both sides of the nail.

Your ingrown toenail can either be painful and also non-painful, however, it may cause you severe pain in your big toe when it gets infected. Besides that, if you ignore it and don’t treat it then in case of any infection, it may drain too.

Many people think that an ingrown toenail can be painful, which is not always confirmed by default because the real pain will start with the infection, hence without it, the patient may feel a little discomfort.

Because of the existence of your nail root under the skin, often the shape of your most ingrown toenails will be curved before it will start hurting or getting infected.

Trimming incorrectly or picking on toenails can be the leading cause of your infected ingrown toenails. There can be trauma, injury, falling nails, stepping on toenails, improper shoes, or particularly among sports soccer, and in certain sporadic cases, a fungal infection may create ingrown toenails too.

In certain cases, the ability to develop such an ingrown toenail can also be due to a hereditary cause.

Cutting your ingrown toenail

Before cutting your ingrown toenail, first, you must give a closer look to decide whether your ingrown nail is in severe condition or not. You may have to go for ingrown toenail laser treatment in a certain well-reputed clinic after consulting any board-certified Podiatrist.

However, if the condition is not so much alarming then you can also prefer to treat your slightly ingrown nail all by yourself.

The following are a few steps that you can adopt for a mildly ingrown nail:

Disinfect your all nail clippers, cuticle sticks, tweezers, and other pedicure tools by rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and let them get dry.

Soak your affected foot in warm water at least for 10 to 30 minutes and soften your nail and skin. Also, you may apply a little Epsom salt, tea tree oil, or some other disinfecting essential oils to your footbath. Also, you may try a vinegar foot soak.

Dry your foot and toes with a soft towel thoroughly.

Gently massage your skin around the ingrown toenail. This can make you feel a bit of uncomfortable.

Scrape your skin gently at the sides of your nail by using a nail file or any cuticle stick for removing any dead skin cells.

If the nail has not curled over or into your skin then do the following:

You can try to encourage your toenail to unroll by using your fingernail or a cuticle stick.

Wash your hands and clean under your fingernails both before and after touching your feet.

Gently lift the edge of your toenail and put a little bit of cotton ball under your nail to let it grow in a different direction but not into your skin or nailbed.

Prefer to wear open-toed shoes or any shoes with a wide-toe box.

Monitor the nail’s growth and substitute the bit of cotton as required.

For a more ingrown nail, in case the area around your nail is not infected:

Cut your toenail straight through with toenail clippers, leaving space at the white nail end for your fingernail to fit underneath.

Using tweezers, carefully press a small piece of cotton or gauze into the ingrown toenail’s corner. This helps to separate the nail from the skin.
To relieve the strain and anguish, clip the exposed nail corner or the ingrown spur. This procedure might be made simpler with precision toenail clippers, also referred to as toenail nippers and podiatrist grade clippers.

Use tea tree oil or similar disinfectant to clean the area.

Put on open- or wide-toed footwear.

This will help you to avoid the treatment of a laser ingrown toenail.

In case you are facing such a foot problem, then you are not alone as every year in the United States, more than millions of people are seeking help for their foot issues. If you require ingrown toenail laser treatment then consider making an appointment with the podiatrist in Irvine.