How to Manage Your Ingrown Toenail Treatment at Home

Dr. Brian Nagy | September 29th, 2017

Posted In: Ingrown Toenails

Most of us have had an ingrown toenail at least once in our lives. More often than not, it will go away on its own. But when it doesn’t, or you have an ingrown toenail that keeps coming back, it can start to be very painful and frustrating. Learn what you can do at home to help manage your ingrown toenail treatment and when it’s important to consult with a New Hampshire podiatrist.

Posted by: DrAxe.com

How to Get Rid of an Ingrown Toenail

How to Cut an Ingrown Toenail

Cutting an ingrown toenail can be difficult, which is why I recommend that you’re very careful and have some help if you choose to do it at home. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

First, soak your feet in warm water mixed with either epsom salt or Castile soap for about 20 minutes to help soften the toenail and skin and reduce any swelling.
Next, using clean fingers, push back the swollen skin carefully. This will likely be uncomfortable. Don’t force it back more than the swollen skin allows.
Now, you need to cut the nail straight across. Start with the edges of the toenail, cutting the nail from the sides, not from the middle.
Place a small piece of cotton between the ingrown nail and skin. This helps the ingrown toenail from coming back, allowing it to grow correctly.
Apply the ointment in the recipe below to the affected area, and bandage it carefully.
To help with healing, avoid wearing socks and shoes while at home. Wear flip-flops or some shoe that avoids dirt but allows open air.
It’s important to prevent infection by changing the cotton daily, maybe even twice a day.

Homemade Ingrown Toenail Ointment Recipe

You can make your very own ointment to help heal an ingrown toenail. Essential oils can help relieve pain and prevent infection. By putting this ointment directly on your toe, you can find some much-needed relief and faster healing.

INGREDIENTS:

5 drops eucalyptus oil
5 drops tea tree oil
1 drop oregano oil
5 drops lavender oil
2 drops peppermint oil
2 ounces aloe vera gel
2 ounces coconut oil

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Trimming your toenails correctly is crucial to avoiding ingrown toenails. Soaking your feet and using essential oils or an over-the-counter ointment often does the trick. But when conservative at-home treatments aren’t working and your ingrown toenail keeps coming back, it’s important to have it looked at by a trusted, qualified podiatrist. If left untreated, ingrown toenails can become infected. A fungal infection can be very painful and requires antibiotics to get rid of it.

Consider scheduling a consultation with a New Hampshire podiatrist at Nagy Footcare. We Believe you should be listened to carefully so we really understand you and your feet, so we will look at you as an individual, listen to you and customize your treatment

In some cases, when symptoms are severe, the ingrown toenail treatment may be surgery.

At Nagy Footcare the procedure involves injecting the toe with an anesthetic, cutting out the ingrown part of the toenail, and cauterizing the root of the nail where it was causing a chronic ingrown toenail.

If surgery is required, Dr. Nagy will have you in and out of surgery in 15 minutes and you’ll be walking within minutes. No stitches required! And the good news is, this surgery is a permanent solution for a chronic ingrown toenail.