I suffered with these for years. I only stopped getting them once I went to hospital to have the nail completely removed. Now my left foot has no toenail on the big toe.
The worst I ever got, I had to see a podiatrist. He had a special implement for removing ingrown toenails, which hurt like hell, but at least it worked.
Apart from that, the only thing I used to do was run the cold water in the bath, and place my toe with the nail under the stream. Do this until the whole area went completely numb. Then attack the thing with a nail file. Essentially inserting the file under the nail, sliding it along and down until it went under the skin but stayed under the nail, and leveraged the nail out from under the skin.
There was usually a lot of blood, and significant amount of pain, so I'd be using the cold water to keep the area numb and clean, though working with the file had to be done in the air, so I could see what I was doing.
Now that I'm older, I'd go with the podiatrist option, so I could get some anti-bacterial soaps, pain killers, and nail softeners. (Things I never knew existed when I was younger.)
Most Helpful Opinions
Yeah, I've had those. Once it got so bad I had an infection and my toe swelled up and oozed pus and blood. Clip the nail away and back, the part that's digging into your flesh--you'll probably have to remove a good amount of pink nail too, not just the white, but it's okay. That buys you some time for the flesh to heal. Once it's healed enough, no oozing blood, you put a small amount of cotton under the nail, forcing it up so it grows *over* the rim of your toe, not *into* the flesh. Start with a small amount, and change it daily if possible, adding more cotton as you can. Oh, and soaking your foot in epson salts will help the infection and swelling.
NOOOOO Do not do what these people say!
I used to take ballet so I suffered those for years!
every time I had one I would go to a good foot doctor and they would remove it properly and tell you what to do so it doesn't grow back and they never came back!
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
3Opinion
If you do it yourself which is possible..its going to hurt like hell..but embrace tha pain and the free flowing blood lol..But get a nail scissors with thin long blades and cut downalong the nail where the toe meets it..You then have to pull that cut away section out and it will have cut into your toe so that will be painful
But I would suggest going to a podiatrist ..He/she will a pply a local anesthetic and repair itThere are chemical producs available to soften it so you can get it out without a lot of blood..if they don't work, you will need a doctor to do it for you, there will be blood!
There's info on Youtube
The only opinion from girls was selected the Most Helpful Opinion, but you can still contribute by sharing an opinion!
Learn more
We're glad to see you liked this post.
You can also add your opinion below!
Most Helpful Opinions