Have you ever had an ingrown toenail before?Failed Home Remedies Can Lead to Infections on Ingrown Toenails
“Okay, Mr. Foot Doctor, if treating ingrown toenails is so easy why don’t I just do it myself?”
Well, these days success rates for open heart surgery are pretty good, too, but you probably don’t want to handle that one on your own. In fairness, there’s a lot of information (and misinformation) out on the Internet about home remedies for ingrown toenails. Foot soaks. Cotton balls. Dental floss. (Seriously). A lot of that info even comes from fairly reputable websites.
But if you ask us, we say don’t bother with ’em. Why?
Well, some of these treatments just flat-out don’t work. (Cutting a “V” notch in your nail, for example, has never once worked in the history of the world.)
Even the ones that can work—like soaking feet and lifting the nail—just don’t make much sense from a risk versus reward perspective.
Let’s say you have to travel 100 miles to a destination. Would you rather:
- Take a brand-new luxury car down a calm and pristine stretch of well-lit, freshly paved, highway, or
- Ride a rusty tricycle along a pothole-covered busy road on the edge of a cliff, in 100-degree heat.
I mean, option B can work, right?
It’ll just take way longer, be way more uncomfortable, and have much lower odds of success and a much higher risk of accidental disaster.
Okay, we’re exaggerating a bit to make a point, obviously. But the point is a good one. Your home remedy isn’t going to be much fun. It’s gonna drag out. There’s a decent chance it won’t work. And the risk of infection always looms until healing is complete.
In the end, it’s hard to justify when you have a much better option.
Call Us at Our Lee's Summit Podiatry Office to Help Your Ingrown Toenail
Relieving an ingrown toenail is a minor procedure for a podiatrist like Dr. Joel Foster. We do these all the time. You don’t need to re-appoint after the first visit—we’ll take care of you right then and there.
You won’t need general anesthesia—just a bit of local anesthetic to numb the toe right before the procedure. You shouldn’t feel a thing during the ingrown toenail removal itself, and when the numbing agent wears off a couple of hours later the vast majority of your ingrown toenail pain should be gone.
Unless your ingrown toenail is really severe, we won’t have to take the whole nail off—just a sliver off the edge causing the problems.
If ingrown toenails are a recurring problem in your life, we can even get rid of the nail matrix along that same edge of the toe—which means that part of the nail will not grow back. In other words, it’s intended to be a permanent solution. While recurrence isn’t impossible, the risk is very low.
What About Downtime?
Immediately after your appointment, you can walk right out of our office.
We recommend you take it easy and keep your feet up for the rest of the day. If you still feel a little soreness, you can take an OTC anti-inflammatory as directed. Beyond that, most people are back to school, work, and other everyday activities within a day or two. If you play sports or do other vigorous activities, you may need to wait a few extra days for those.
All in all, it’s the best treatment option for ingrown toenails by far.
So, what are you waiting for? If you want your ingrown toenail pain good for good, give us a call at (816) 246-4222 or fill out our contact form for your appointment today.
