The two most common toenail problems are fungus and poor toenail trimming
technique.
Fungus (onychomycosis)
Fungus causes onychomycosis, the thickening and discoloring of the
toenails due to an infection of the nail plate by the same fungus that causes
athlete’s foot. If your feet perspire a lot, you are prone to fungus
infections. The nail turns yellow or brown, produces a rancid odor, and begins
to crack, flake and peel from the underlying skin. Sometimes, the entire nail
comes right off. Possible treatments are the application of ointments – not
really effective, with only a 30 to 40 percent cure rate, and cumbersome to use
– and oral medication. Applying antiperspirant on your feet keeps them dry. A
more costly treatment is having your feet injected with Botox to freeze the
sweat glands. Try to avoid wearing the same pair of shoes everyday. Air them to
keep them dry, especially during the winter months. Fungus thrives in moist,
warm conditions. Foot perspiration becomes smelly only because of bacteria and
fungus, so keep them out by spraying your shoes with disinfectant, or saturate
a tissue with rubbing alcohol and insert them into your shoes overnight. If you
don’t get rid of the smell, try using scented insoles.
Ingrown toenail
Ingrown toenails are another problem. This happens when the nail curves into
the surrounding skin and causes pain and infection. Anyone, young or old, man
or woman, can get it. The main causes are improper trimming of the nail, use of
tight-fitting shoes, or nail injuries. See a podiatrist as soon as you suspect
that you have an ingrown toenail. When left untreated, the infection can spread
to the bone below the nail, making treatment more difficult, in which case the
whole nail should be removed.
Some people, after having the ingrown toenail removed, find it coming back.
If you have such a chronic case, you can consider having a permanent nail
procedure performed so that the edge of the nail never grows back. Any
podiatrist can do this for you. The best solution is to clip your toenails
straight across and not dig into the corners to prevent them from growing
inwards. Also, avoid wearing excessively pointed shoes as the pressure causes
an ingrown toenail.