Both of my big toenails have been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years. They can be quite painful at times, so it might be time to go and get them sorted. Unless someone has a helpful suggestion for some home surgery?

What have I got in store if I go to a chiropodist?

Pain.

You did ask.

I had a similar problem when I was about 16, except possibly a lot worse than you are describing since the nails actually cut into my toes – really painful! Went to the hospital, they gave me a local anaesthetic, shoved scissors underneath the nail, snipped, and pulled the ingrowing bit out. Quite revolting really…!

Actually I watched them do it which was quite surreal – my first experience of a local anaesthetic.

Since yours don’t sound as bad as mine were, I’d go and see someone asap and you might get away without any of the nastiness described above.

Get under them and dig them out.
Apparently cutting a “V” in the nail prevents them returning.

go and see a podiatrist, it shouldn’t hurt! ( I know, I am one!!)

photos would help though (if only for some good old stw comments)

treatments may include a local anaesthetic followed by removal of the offending spike or just packing underneath the nail to let it grow out, it all depends on what is causing the pain, be it nail shape, improper cutting by yourself, footwear pressure, etc etc

@don simon the ‘v’ cutting technique you describe doesn’t work (bit of an old wives tale i think).

@don simon the ‘v’ cutting technique you describe doesn’t work (bit of an old wives tale i think).

Hence “apparently”, I am neither old or a wife either. 8)

Haha you have an untreated fungal nail infection

Both of my big toenails have been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years

Sounds like you may be cutting them wrong, rounding off the edges too much.

I’m definitely cutting them wrong, but it’s almost like I’m past the point of no return, like I can’t get them to grow correctly again 😐

Man, go to the foot doctors. Mine was agony (Motorbike accident,broke loads of foot things and caused ingrowing nail)
10 minutes and £15 and agony no more! Almost instant relief!!

I have something called CMT that affects my feet.

When i were a nipper the docs decided to operate to relieve my arches, one of the things they did was to straighten my hammered big toes by breaking them and setting them straight by sticking surgical steel pins down them!
Unfortunately one set at an angle and kept giving me a chronic ingrowing toenail. To solve this they put me under a general anaesthetic and removed my nail and nailbed so that it would never grow again.
Great, i will never get an ingrowing toenail on that toe but now my big toe looks kinda like a brutalised penis – and as stiff! *

*My other big toe faired no better, as they do not bend at the knuckle i caught it on the floor oneday and snapped the main tendon. So, i have one toe that looks like a penis that even Hora wouldn’t play with if it was his, and another toe that refuses to respond to commands.

🙁

@muddydwarf 😀

@wallop send me some pics if you want my opinion, mail in profile

The scissors on the little swiss army knives (the pinkie size ones) are the best thing for getting them out.

The scissors on the little swiss army knives (the pinkie size ones) are the best thing for getting infections with

fify 🙂

I had the nails on both my big toes removed quite a few years back.

The procedure is quite entertaining, outpatient visit. Apart from the anaesthetic jags which involve quite a big needle a few times around the base of your toe. I could feel myself lifting off the hospital bed thingy. Just lie back someone said, not bloomin likely, I’ll be watching thanks.

Then wait five minutes and the doctor says “can you feel this” as he squeezed the toenail against the toe. He must have used quite a bit of pressure as this resulted in a fair amount of blood oozing out of the bit where it’s all ingrown. I’m pretty sure I’d have felt that if the jags hadn’t worked, and he would’ve known about it.

Then it’s scalpel time, slicing the nail and pair of pliers to pull the nail bits out. Bandaged up, and sent home with instructions to change dressings every day (or might have been twice a day). Lots of blood and fluid for first week and feels dead weird with the soft skin where the nail covers.

They grow back eventually, mine did and promptly went ingrown again, so had to be removed again along with the nail bed. So it’s back in, same as before except they yank out the nail bed and then there’s the scrubbing stick thingy they have a good scrape about with to make sure it’s all out. That’s supposed to kill the nail off, not having a nail bed. However, bits of mine grew back so I have bits of nails on each of my big toes. Bit gross, eh?

I had them on both my big toes after my feet getting trodden on playing rugby. I left them and left them and then one of the spikes grew through the side of my big toe…..

It only took 30mins to sort.

carlphillips – Member
The scissors on the little swiss army knives (the pinkie size ones) are the best thing for getting infections with
fify

You’re probably right, but it’s a small price to pay for the pleasure of having a good old dig about in your nails with something sharp. (Can’t just be me that loves that sort of thing?)

@TGA self surgery is what keeps my mortgage paid, i love it! most people to be fair love a bit of digging around, its always interesting to hear what implements people use for that too.

there are some (appalling techniques i may add, like injecting through infected tissue, etc) nail surgery procedures on youtube you can watch to whet your appetite. the whole thing is akin to having a filling once the injection is over it should be painless and done within 20mins, if phenol (other chemicals are available) is used then the nail shouldn’t grow back again.

Ah, I see. I wasn’t paying attention further up there.

I just can’t help myself to be honest! I do give everything a wipe down with Dettol before and after, my wife (a nurse) insists on it. Little scissors for the ingrowing toenails, safety pins for ingrowing hairs.

@carlphillips – I’m about to email you. Apologies in advance! I took one photo, which made me discover a few hairs on my toes, so I’ve had to sort that out before I took another one! You’ll understand why when you get my email…

Thanks 😆

I soldiered on with one recently for a few weeks which was mega painful until I went to a chiropodist who did a partial nail avulsion which didn’t work. Then I decided to get it done properly…stop reading now if you’re squeamish…

A tourniquet was applied followed by anaesthetic injections into the big toe. Once it was numb, the chiropodist inserted what looked like a small lollipop stick under the nail to separate it from the nail bed, all the way down to under the cuticle, about 5mm from the edge of the infected side. Then, out came the pliers and the chiropodist put a vertical incision as far down the nail towards the cuticle as possible. Then she pushed a scalpel down the remainder of the attached nail until it went under the cuticle and the blade disappeared into my toe. Then she twisted the offending nail out, cleaned the wound and dressed it.

I’m quite a big bloke and work in a job where being squeamish is not helpful but watching all of this being down to part of my body I couldn’t feel just made my head swim.”I think you had better lie down dear, you look like death.” On the plus side, it only throbbed a bit once the anaesthetic wore off and after a week or so it was so much better, I was so relieved! The nail is VERY slowly growing back but it should be a few more months yet.

Don’t try to do it yourself as I can almost guarantee you won’t fix it. Get it done properly and you won’t regret it.

Oh good god.

Had mine both removed a few years ago I wll try to “dig” the pictures out and post up next week
They looked like a pair of oozy bloody stumps but no pain so that works for me, just get the odd horn of nail now and then but no pain anymore.

I love STW. Thank you, Dr Phillips!

8)

@carlphillips, what area of the country are you based in?

I did it myself, with a sharp knife, scissors, anti-septic spray when I was a teenager. Granted, the nails had only dug in a little.

Do not recommend but it worked.

I couldn’t be **** to go to the doctors.

I’ve had both my big toes done.

Was pretty painless. I had a procedure where they remove about a third of the nail from the offending side. It’s done under local anaesthetic by a surgeon. The key thing is that they use an acid solution on the nail bed to stop it growing back. They then tell you to rest it for 2 weeks and take a week off work. Sod that, I’ve got a desk job so just wore trainers for a couple of days because of the swelling and went straight back to work.

Dressings off after 4 days or so and right as rain.

I had it done in an NHS hospital, but as a private patient through work. They always send you a copy of the invoice and it was approx £350.

Having had one done, I got the other at the very first sign of trouble. My problem, nail to big for the nail bed was an inevitably apparently. In hindsight even if I didn’t have it covered by Bupa I would absolutely pay for it. Painful problem solved.

Another DIY fan here, I either use a sharp pocket knife or a craft knife and a pair of decent tweezers.
I seem to prefer digging them out most when there really bad but these days I sort it earlier rather than later when needed.

@wisepranker

based in southwest, Plymouth & Torquay.

I prise mine up with the edge of a fingernail – it can sometimes take several attempts over a few nights to get to them properly but then I just rip the nail off down the edge.

Podiatrist. They remove a strip and phenolise it so it doesnt grow back as wide. Less than an hour, only discomfort is the anaesthetic going in! Had both sides of one nail done. Years of problems solved. Central.hampshire if thats useful to op.

I had it when I was 16, I think it was as a result of slamming my toe into the front of the shoes whilst playing tennis, combines with cutting the corners. I used to finish the day with blood all over the end of my socks, pretty painful to. To avoid going to the doctor I cut down the sides which hurt like hell but made it better before I got an infection.
When I finally got went the a chiropodist it was fairly simple under local anaesthetic. The only issue I had was having to wade through sewage the next day when I was caught in a flash flood so had to have a few jabs to be on the safe side.

Go to the doctor, alternatively I’ll remove them with a dremel, you’ll have to sign a disclaimer though 😈

dremel

😯

I had a big toe ingrow as a teenager at school. Full of pus, the works. It was utter agony, I’ve never known pain like it.

Because I was young and stupid, I took a penknife to it one day. Rooted out the ingrowing bit eventually, was utterly shocked at the shape of my nail edge; it went forward with my toe as you’d expect, then jutted out diagonally at the end in a huge spike. Hacked it down and it’s been fine since. Bloody weird.

If it happened again though, I wouldn’t recommend DIY. I think I got lucky.

I told you not to read on if you were squeamish! I’d throughly recommend it though – the only painful bit was the injection which was nothing compared to the ingrown nail itself. You can’t actually feel anything they’re doing to your toe so my top tip is don’t watch.

Oh, and get someone to drive you there and back. I hadn’t thought of that and had to drive about 6 miles unable to properly feel the accelerator. That was interesting….

I’d throughly recommend it though – the only painful bit was the injection which was nothing compared to the ingrown nail itself.

Top tip and honest truth right there. Get the pro’s to sort it. I’ll never go through that on-off suffering again – I now have half a nail on one big toe but it’s blissfully pain free.

Also – get them to tell you how to cut your other nails properly. Use a dremel if the proper technique is too boring!