I know how bad it hurts to have ingrown toe nails. I used to deal with the pain daily, until it was so unbearable that I gave up and went in for surgery. I know the word surgery sounds horrible, but it’s worth it. I will guarantee you that the pain you are dealing with now, is the most pain you will feel even after the surgery. Surgery consists of shots between your toes (several)- this is the horrible part. Once you get past the shots, you are care free. You will not feel a thing and you do not have to watch. It will be done in one office visit. You can even bring along visitors. They will cut your nail along the edge that is ingrown and cut that section off. They will stick a stick down into the hole with medicine so that the nail does not grow back in that location- and it wont. You would think that this would hurt afterwards but this is no pain. The feeling afterwards is nothing but relief. You don’t even have to take aspirin. The pressure of the toe hurting for so long, is actually relieved at the time of surgery.
If you have opted to try and find a way out of surgery than I have a few tips for you. The first thing to do is take a look at your socks and shoes. One of which is probably way too small. Ingrown toe nails also happen alot to overweight people or pregnant women. If it’s a temporary feeling and you haven’t been dealing with the pain for long, it could subside. You can try many things to help relieve the pain. You can buy ingrown toe nail pain reliever which is a gel you use on the location of the pain. This will make the skin very tender and burn. I believe that this hurts worse than the surgery. You could also use foot baths with warm water and soak your feet every night for at least an hour. Gently pull back on the nail and try to trim it-straight across-also pull the nail out of the skin. The main problem with toe nails is how you trim your nails. Never trim the nail to be rounded. As stupid as it may look, always trim your nail straight across and never round it on the edges- this is what causes ingrown toe nails.
Buy comfortable shoes, give yourself a foot massage and work gently at trimming the nail down until you can turn it around yourself. Little by little apply hydrogen pyroxide to keep the wound from getting more infected. Buy bigger socks also. Try everything you can until the only option left is surgery. The only part of surgery that will hurt is the shots. The shots are the worst shots I have had. I had my daughter a year ago and the epidural was nothing compared to this shot. I’m telling you now that the pain you go through every day is worth the surgery. If you feel discomfort you will only have to go through a few shots and you will feel better- for the rest of your life. If you have another toe prone to ingrown toe nails you may want to have both done at the same time to get it over with.
