Ingrown toenails & Nail Surgery - Alpine Podiatry

Ingrown toenails & Nail Surgery

Ingrown toenails are painful and occur when a spike of nail grows into the skin surrounding the toenail when the natural shape of the nail is involuted (arched) or due to trauma.

Cutting your toenails too short, or cutting down the sides, will encourage the skin to fold over your nail and the nail to grow into the skin. A fungal nail infection can cause your toenail to thicken or widen.

How Else Might They Occur?

Wearing tight-fitting shoes, socks or tights can also be a contribution, this places pressure on the skin around your toenail; the skin may be pierced if it’s pressed on to your toenail. Sweaty feet – if the skin around your toenails is soft, it’s easier for your nail to pierce it and embed itself within it.

 

Treatment

In some cases, ingrown toenails can be managed without nail surgery, and we would always try this first providing it could be tolerated. This involves cutting the nail spike out without using anaesthetic and instant relief can be gained. Sometimes packing the nail helps to reduce the risk of reoccurring ingrowing as it takes the pressure from the nail edge allowing the swelling to subside. Commonly they can become infected, and antibiotics are often needed, these can only be prescribed by your GP.

If conservative management is not possible or has previously failed, then we can offer a more invasive solution called nail surgery. This is a minor procedure which involves the administration of local anaesthetic to the affected toe and then permanently removing all or part of the nail. This can be done in two ways, permanent removal where the nail we have removed doesn’t grow back or temporary removal when the nail grows back after a few months.

Before Nail Surgery…

Before nail surgery can be considered, a full assessment needs to be carried out a few days or weeks before the procedure. It generally takes between 6-10 weeks for the toe to heal after nail surgery and we monitor this carefully. Things to consider are not being able to drive on the day of the surgery and having an open wound on the toe for a few weeks after the operation. You can generally return to normal daily activities within a couple of days, however doing sport such as running could take longer depending on healing times.                                                                                                          

Our Team that treat Ingrown toenails & Nail Surgery

Danielle Ryder

HCPC Registration CH26865

Chloe Roche

HCPC Registration CH035949

Joanna Stallard

HCPC Registration CH34982

Tom Sandy

HCPC Registration CH35392

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Danielle is so lovely and caring and such a true professional in her job that you can tell she absolutely loves it so much. From day 1 of meeting her when I took my teenage daughter to look at her 2 ingrown toenails down to her aftercare, I can not thank her enough for what she’s done for her. By far the quickest appointment I could get for my daughter who was in so much pain and always very accommodating with the appointments as I’m a shift worker. Would highly recommend it without any hesitation.

- Ruth Parkinson

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