I recently had the pleasure of treating a woman in her mid-30s, who visited our office for the first time. When she came in, she was concerned about her recurring ingrown toenails. While it was her first time with us, it was far from the first time she sought treatment. In fact, she had gone through many rounds of antibiotics. She'd also gone through several different procedures to remove the ingrown nail. Those procedures helped at first, but she found that the pain was back within a few months. So here's what we did to turn her ship around.
Stopping Recurrent Ingrown Toenails ![Inflamed ingrown toenail]()
When I evaluated her toes, it was clear she had ingrown toenails. But it wasn't because she was cutting her nails incorrectly. Rather, it was the fact that her toenails were just too wide for her nail beds. And don't think she was anything out of the ordinary; this is actually a very common problem, and one of the top causes of ingrown toenails. (P.S. if you want to learn more about ingrown toenails, check out this video I recently shared,)
I discussed an in-office procedure with her. Here's the plan: I would numb her toe and remove the extreme borders of the toenail. This part of the procedure would be similar to some of her previous treatment plans.
But here's how I stood out from the crowd: I proposed an additional step, that was never offered to her at her previous doctor’s visits. What was it, you're wondering? You gotta keep reading to get that answer...but don't worry, I won't make you wait too long.
Topical Applications for Ingrown Toenail Treatments
This was the solution for keeping her ingrown toenail from coming back: I applied a medication to the base of the removed nail. This medication made all the difference, because it chemically cauterized the nail matrix (those are the cells that grow the nail.) And by cutting off the nail cells, we blocked the nail of the ingrown nail to return.
Needless to say, after we got through this plan, I was dealing with one happy patient (insert accolades here.) Until she came into our Houston podiatry office, she wasn't aware that a permanent solution to her problem existed! She certainly didn't know that the solution was so seemingly simple.
Thankfully, the procedure went off without a hitch. Once I got her toe numbed, the rest of the process didn't take much longer than five minutes. For a few days afterward, she experienced minor discomfort, but she was able to keep it controlled with ibuprofen.
And do you want to hear the best news? Well, here it is: when we followed up a few months later, she showed no signs of the ingrown toenail coming back. We fully expect that the relief she's feeling now will be permanent. So, if you've been suffering with constant ingrown toenails, stopr riding the roller coaster of futile in-office procedures. Instead, come into Tanglewood Foot Specialists and see if our differentiating ingrown toenail treatment plan will work for you !
