Trimming fungal nails can be a hard task to endeavor, for many reasons. The toenail fungus can cause all sorts of changes to the nail. There are aesthetic concerns that merely affect the visual appearance of the nail. Also, functional concerns are more serious. The functional concerns are what usually causes trimming fungal nails to become more difficult. However, all symptoms of toenail fungus infection can be distressing and difficult to manage.

These concerns may cause the nail to look ugly or dirty, and overgrown from the difficulty of trimming them. The nails can become very disfigured. Once this happens, it can become embarrassing to go out in public or be seen without shoes on. This can detract from the quality of life like going to the beach or pool. It is important to learn how to manage thickened nails so that your life isn’t affected in this way.

Trimming Fungal Nails

Trimming fungal nails is most often difficult because the nails have become thickened or hardened. However, these are just a couple of the multitude of symptoms that toenail fungus can cause. Most commonly, these symptoms are purely visual. It shows discoloration of the nail, cracking, and lifting of the nail from the nail bed. However, the thickening and hardening of the nail pose a functional concern for regular maintenance of the nails.

These particular symptoms make it more difficult to trim the toenails. When the nails become hardened because of a fungal infection, it can be difficult to get regular nail clippers to pierce through them. When the nails become thickened because of a fungal infection, regular nail clippers may not have wide enough spacing between their blades to even fit the nail in between them.

Trimming fungal nails can feel impossible when they have gotten to the point where they won’t be cut by normal nail clippers. In this situation, getting your nails trimmed by a podiatrist may be an option so that they don’t become overgrown. However, this is not a permanent solution and sometimes a podiatrist may not even be able to trim your nails properly. You can attempt to manage thickened or hardened fungal nails at home by simply soaking them in warm water.

Trimming Options

Trimming fungal nails gets easier when the nails have become softened. The simplest way to do this is to get them to absorb as much water and moisture as possible. To do this, you can actually just make a bath of warm water at home and soak your feet in it for anywhere between 20-40 minutes. This will allow the water in the bath to soak up into your nail, making the nail become softer and easier to cut. Once you’ve soaked your nails in water, attempt to trim them again and see if it has become easier.

If you are able to trim the nails after you soak them once, this is great! If you still can’t trim them, you can try soaking them in water for consecutive days to see if that improves your ability to trim them as well. Soaking them in water for consecutive days will allow even more moisture into the nail, and even more softening to occur.

Temporary Fix

Temporary fixes like softening for trimming fungal nails will only go so far. Eventually, you will need to receive treatment for the root cause of the issue itself. This is often easier said than done; many patients have been trying to treat their toenail fungus for years with minimal positive results. This is because the efficacy of most fungal treatments tends to be very low. Topical treatments for toenail fungus, whether prescription or not, often require a year or more of application before any results are seen at all.

Even after results start to show, you will need to wait further before the condition is healed. Oral medications for fungus treatment are a little more effective than topicals, but these medications are also relatively weak. The bigger downside with oral medications for fungus is that they are very dangerous, and can cause severe side effects like liver toxicity. For this reason, bloodwork is necessary before and after a course of oral antifungal medication.

Laser Treatment for Fungal Nails

The best option to permanently cure toenail fungus and make trimming fungal nails much easier is the PinPointe laser. This treatment only requires one session to completely eliminate the fungus and has been FDA-approved for over 10 years. To view the doctors that we work with over 150 podiatry clinics nationwide, visit our locations website here. You can schedule a consultation with one of our podiatrists by calling 800-672-0625 or by submitting an inquiry on our website.