How to care ingrown toenails

These photos show the foot of an ingrown-toenail patient in her 40s. By inserting an aluminum plate under her nail, it was prevented from growing deeper into the flesh. / Courtesy of Gangdong Kyunghee University Hospital

By Nam Hyun-woo

When Los Angeles Dodgers starter Ryu Hyun-jin injured his toenail during a game last month, Ryu posted a photo of his injured toe on his social networking service account. Doctors said Ryu might be in for more pain because he has an ingrown toenail.

An ingrown toenail is a condition in which the nail grows into the nail bed, causing severe pain, swelling and microbial inflammation. Some patients in severe conditions cannot walk and feel extreme twinges in their feet.

According to Professor Sim Woo-young at Gangdong Kyunghee University Hospital, ingrown toenails mostly affect those who cut the toenails too short or wear shoes that do not fit properly.

Those are widely known causes of the condition, but it can sometimes occur because of less-obvious reasons.

Ingrown toenails usually occur with big toenails and are prevalent among older people.

“For men, especially Korean men who need to fulfill mandatory military service, ingrown toenails can occur while marching long distances in military boots,” Sim said. “Women who often wear shoes designed to bear most of the weight in the frontal part of the foot suffer pain in their toes.”

For baseball, weightlifting or ski athletes, whose tiptoes have to bear heavy weight, ingrown toenails result in severe pain.

It can occur with any nails in both the hands and the feet, but mostly appears in the big toes.

The pain is annoying enough, but they often lead to secondary inflammation because the nails grow inside again into the healed skin, irritating it and exposing it to repeated microbial infection.

For patients who have chronic diseases, such as diabetes, ingrown-toenail-caused inflammation can trigger glycosuria in the foot.

The treatment for an ingrown toenail depends on the severity.

Sim said, if the condition is not severe, it can be improved by simply not cutting the toenail shorter than the flesh around the toe.

“If the condition does not improve, inserting tubes into the sides of the nail bed is recommended to prevent the nail from cutting into the flesh further,” he said.

For extreme cases, surgical treatments involve complete removal of the toenail to fundamentally stop further ingrowth.

He advised those suffering from the condition against cutting the curved portion of toenails too deeply. They need to cut straight across.

They should avoid shoes that wrap the feet too tightly because it can damage the skin due to pressure from ingrown toenails.

For prevention, an often-cited cure is not to wear shoes, because the condition rarely appears in people who habitually go barefoot. Sim recommends shoes that allow healthy ventilation and advises practicing good foot hygiene.