Ingrown toenail home remedies may not always work. Ingrown toenails can be painful, inconvenient, and unpleasant. There are a few methods and home treatments you can do that will allow your toenail to stop growing into your skin. These are healthy and cheaper alternatives to nail removal surgery and medical ingrown toenail treatments.
How do home remedies work?
First start with a foot soak, make the water as hot as you can stand while still being comfortable. Once you’ve filled your basin with hot water, add a generous amount of Epsom salt. Soak your feet for about 15 – 30 minutes, try to do this at least twice a day. This will allow the toenail to soften and also prevent infection.
Grooming your nail
You will need a few tools for this next part; a cotton round or cotton ball, tweezers, and a flat pointed tool like a cuticle remover pen.
Start by trimming your toenail, be extra cautious when trimming around the ingrown section. Be sure to cut the toenail completely straight without any pointed parts near the edges. Toenails that are trimmed rounded have a higher chance of growing into the skin causing ingrown toenails.
Do home remedies relieve ingrown toenail pain?
While keeping your toenail slight raised, put a small piece of cotton between your toenail and your skin. This will help prevent the ingrown toenail from coming back.You can rip the small bit of cotton you’ll be using from your tweezers. Hold the bit of cotton with your tweezers by the ingrown toenail. Use your pointed tool to push the cotton underneath your toenail corner. Don’t push too hard, the piece of cotton should form a little ball underneath the ingrown toenail.
The cotton piece shouldn’t be overly large that it’s sticking out dramatically from your nail, but it also can’t be too small that it’s irrelevant. You will need to remove the cotton daily to clean the area and replace it with new one to reduce the risk of infection. Apply anti infection ointments or creams to the nail and keep it bandaged. During this time be sure to let your feet breathe, avoid wearing shoes and socks at home. So long as you keep up this routine your ingrown toenail should grow out in a few weeks!
Laser Treatment for Nail Fungus
If you have caught nail fungus as well, it can be easily treated using the FDA-approved PinPointe laser, which typically only takes on treatment.
Our nail doctor in Baltimore, MD recommends this treatment. The PinPointe Laser treatment has the highest cure rate in the market. It has no side effects and no recovery period. As a result, you can go about your daily activities right after the treatment. Also, it is not painful.
If you have any signs of nail fungus, call us at (800) 672-0625 or visit our website for more information on our doctors at one of our over 160 locations.
