An ingrown toenail happens when the nail grows into the soft tissue and caused a wound along the lateral nail fold. The wound causes redness, swelling, and later build pus around the toe. The lateral nail fold's skin would also be overgrown to cover the part of the nail edge which makes the nail even hard to grow out of the nail bed.
There are many different shapes of toenails in ingrown toenails. The more curve the toenail is, the easier it is to cause wound and pain in the toe. Normally our toenails only have a slight curve over the nail bed. While due to tight shoes, intense workouts, our walking habits, etc. The toenail suffered force to make it grow more curved. As the picture shows. For the very severe situation, the nail even curved to fold again into the nail bed. You can find more ingrown toenail shapes here.
For most people, they did not know they have ingrown toenails until they felt pain in their toe, and they also did not pay much attention until the pus build-up.
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The first stage ingrown toenail
This is how the ingrown toenail looks like in the early stage. It would have redness and swelling on the toe. The one in the picture is a popular cause of ingrown toenails. That the nail edge was cut too deep and short. The lateral nail fold has enclosed the nail's edge, so when cutting the nail, it is hard to cut the nail straight across, and easy to leave a spike in the nail.
It is very easy to fix an ingrown toenail at its first stage. You can use an ingrown toenail clipper to cut the spike out. The most important thing is that do not leave any new pointing edge in the nail, you can use an ingrown toenail file to polish the nail edge to make it more smooth. So that the nail can grow out.
The second stage ingrown toenail
This is how the ingrown toenail looks like in the second stage. Pus would build up around the toe, the swelling becomes bigger. Pus would come out when you touch your toe. Your toe would also have a foul smell. When reaching this stage, wearing shoes would also feel a lot of pain.
When it is in the early second stage, we can still use conservative treatment at home. The most important thing is that we get out the nail spike that poking the nail's lateral nail fold. And then the swelling would clam down by itself. While if you are in the later second stage, We would suggest seeking a doctor for help.
The third stage ingrown toenail
When the ingrown toenail reaches the third stage. It would have more pus around the nail edge, granulation tissue would grow out, the granulation tissue is extremely painful if touched. At this stage, it is strongly recommended to go to the hospital before it gets other complications.
Will an ingrown toenail eventually go away?
In most cases, the ingrown toenail won't heal by itself, As it has a nail spike around the nail edge that punctured the soft tissue. Unless you have got the spike out, the toenail would always get infected and you also suffer from the pain. The ointment can reduce the infection, while it won't cure the ingrown toenail.
In the worst cases, The spike would puncture the toe through, Or the nail would puncture the nail bed through. So it is better that we can treat the ingrown toenail at an early stage, the earlier the better.
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