Asked by Anonymous - Painfull ingrown toenail: Been dealing with this off and on forever it seems, the inside of my big toe always gets the nail stuck in the side no matter how I cut the nails.  Everyone always says "cut straight across".  Its hard to even let the nail grow out that far because it wedges in the side of the skin!

Anonymous Says: I've had several ingrown toenails and I can tell you the shoes you wear matters.  I finally realized my shoes were causing it and finally switched to wide shoes and it quit putting pressure on the side of the toe.  That will create ingrown nails and will do so on the big toe if you dont have correct fitting shoes.

Anonymous Says: You probably dont want to hear this, but if its all red and infected (like liquid coming out at times), just go to a foot doctor and get it cut out.  Trust me I've been through this, once you get it cut out they will make it so that inside toenail edge never grows back again and it permanently fixes the problem.  In a few days it will be like new and the problem and pain will never occur again, well worth just getting it done.

Anonymous Says: Here is another very important thing.  I've had the ingrown nail cut out twice, once on each foot.  Today both of the inside nails are gone where it will never grow back, so its great because I cant get an ingrown toenail in those areas anymore and you really cant even tell looking at it (its just the very inside edge part that never grows back).  However, one time they "cut out" the root, and one time they "burned" the root with a chemical.  You dont feel either, but be warned ..... if they are "cutting" the root out you will be in alot more pain for several days.   You want to make sure they chemically "burn" the toenail root because its almost zero pain and after a couple days you realize it was nothing.  I would NEVER get it done again if they say they cut out the root (not even sure if they do that anymore but I'm just passing along the information).  I think because I went to a foot doctor they were more specialized and the doctor just burned the toenail root.  When I had it cut out it was in hospital (big mistake), I assumed they were doing it the same but I should have just went to a foot doctor and got it done in his office!  Lesson learned ... today it doesnt matter, but the recovery hurt alot when they cut it out.

Anonymous Says: Just to explain this better, to fix an ingrown toenail the doctor cuts down the inside edge with a scissors thing (yes I watched him do it, after several shots in the base of the toe you cant feel it).  So he peels out the inside edge of the ingrown toenail that was sticking into your skin, so its now removed.  This is just the very inside edge, the underlying curved piece.  So once thats done they make the root so that inside edge never grows back ... whether burning the root (no stitches even needed, or digging in and cutting out the root piece (and putting a few stiches in to close it and getting swelling and throbbing for sevearl days after it).

Anonymous Says: ugh brings back memories of a bad ingrown nail i had long ago, I remember it being very painfull until I finally got it taken out.

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