Causes, symptoms and treatment for ingrown toenails

2.  Common causes include:
 Wearing shoes that crowd your toenails
 Cutting your toenails too short or not
straight across
 Injury to your toenail
 Unusually curved toenails

3.  You can lower your risk of developing an
ingrown toenail by trimming your toenails
straight across with no rounded corners. The
length of your toenail should extend out past
your skin. The top of each nail should form a
straight line across, level with the top of your
toe. Some additional guidelines for preventing
ingrown toenails include:
 Don't pick at your toenails or tear them off.
 Make sure your shoes and socks are not too
tight.
 Keep your feet clean at all times.
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4.  When a toenail is ingrown, it is curved and
grows into the skin, usually at the nail borders
(the sides of the nail). This “digging in” of the
nail irritates the skin, often creating pain,
redness, swelling, and warmth in the toe.
If an ingrown nail causes a break in the skin,
bacteria may enter and cause an infection in
the area, which is often marked by drainage
and a foul odor. However, even if the toe isn’t
painful, red, swollen, or warm, a nail that
curves downward into the skin can progress to
an infection.
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5.  Sometimes initial
treatment for ingrown
toenails can be safely
performed at home.
However, home
treatment is strongly
discouraged if an
infection is suspected,
or for those who have
medical conditions
that put feet at high
risk, such as diabetes,
nerve damage in the
foot, or poor
circulation.
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