Ingrown toenails

An ingrown toenail —onychocryptosis— is a nail edge that digs into the surrounding skin. It usually starts as discomfort when the shoe presses or when the area is touched, and it can progress to redness, swelling and constant pain. The most common causes are cutting the nail too short or too curved, footwear that squeezes the front of the foot, a knock, or a nail that grows with a strongly curled shape.

At the appointment the embedded spicule is removed —that is what causes the pain— and the nail groove is cleaned and freed. From there the second part matters most: working out why it happened —the cut, the footwear, the shape of the nail or how the toe loads— so that it does not come back, because a nail that ingrows once tends to do it again if the cause is still there.