Health Information : Ingrown Toenails

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What are Ingrown Toenails?

Ingrown Toenails is a painful condition that occurs when sharp edges or corners of your nails dig into the skin next to the nail. Initially pain and inflammation occurs at the site but later on yellowish liquid or pus starts draining from there. If left untreated, it can cause serious infection which may even require surgery.

What causes Ingrown Toenails?

The most common causes of Ingrown Toenails are:

• Badly cut toenails
• Wearing tight-fitting shoes
• Sweaty feet
• Injury
• Natural shape of nail

What are the symptoms of Ingrown Toenails?

Ingrown Toenails symptoms are:

• Pain and tenderness in your toe, either on one side or both sides of toe
• Sharp pain in your toe when pressure is place on it
• Redness and swelling around your toenail
• Infection of the tissue around your toenail
• Fluid build-up in the area surrounding the toe
• Bleeding
• White/yellow pus coming from affected area

How can Ingrown Toenails be treated?

You can try home treatments for Ingrown Toenails like soaking your feet in warm water for 15-20 minutes, pushing away the skin from the edge of toenail with cotton ball soaked in olive oil or apply antibiotic to prevent infection. In case, after few weeks you still see redness, pain or infection at the site of toenail, then you must immediately contact your doctor. He may give you antibiotic or in severe cases may perform surgery.