Does anyone know any tricks on how to remove an ingrown toenail??

[Anonymous]

I have been limping around for a week and a half now and I'm sick of it. I have a terrible ingrown toenail and I've tried about everything I know to get it out. Does anyone know any tricks? Please help!

[Anonymous]

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.)

[Asker]

I think I may need to go to the pediatrist for this one, because my whole toe is red. It seeps a lot of puss and it hurts like heck! I just want some relief, lol. Thanks for your comment, I guess that's what I need to do.

[Opinion Owner]

Even when it had turned black with crusted blood and pus, I was still favouring the home surgical techniques. I was terrified of going to a doctor about it. It was just when my mother happened to see how bad my toe had gotten, that she insisted on the podiatrist.

It sounds like yours hasn't gotten that bad yet. Good luck.

[Asker]

No, mine hasn't got anywhere near that bad. Sounds like you had horrible ingrowns. WOW!

[AndyWes]

Wow, I guess it doesn't grow back sometimes. I had my foot get stomped on badly, the nail sort of died and I peeled it off, but a new one sort of grew in weirdly, then almost normal.

[Opinion Owner]

They can treat the nail bed when they remove the nail surgically, so it won't grow back.

[AndyWes]

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.

[Anonymous]

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!

[sammy_31]

I agree go to a pro before you make it worse and because more pain. She looks like she knows what she's talking about. (:

[Freddiek70]

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 it

[martyfellow]

There 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!

[Anonymous]

There's info on Youtube