Foot Fungus: Causes And Risk Factors
A foot fungus is a fungal infection of the skin, better known as athletes foot, says Sundling. The fungus enters through cracks in the skin. Its known as athletes foot because athletes or anyone who is more active and sweats a lot is more at risk. Kids are also more at risk, because they dont tend to wear different shoes, and changing your shoes is one way to avoid foot fungus.
Foot fungus is very common. It does not mean that someone is dirty or didnt bathe, and if you have a compromised immune system, you may be more susceptible, says Sundling.
Know Not To Be Afraid
Surgery can be nerve-wracking and scary. Nobody likes pain, hospitals, scalpels, cuts, and anesthesia. The whole idea can be very unpleasanteven reading about it can turn the stomach!
But, it is very important to remember that thousands of people have experienced nail removal and have lived to tell about it! While there may be some discomfort and pain following the procedure, if a qualified doctor or other medical professional has concluded this is the best treatment for your specific problem, let that give all the comfort it should. We are very blessed to live in a world where so many health problems can be easily corrected!
Is It Fungus Or Melanoma
Melanoma is a form of skin cancer that can develop on the nail bed. It has a dark brown or black color and can be mistaken for toenail fungus or another toenail problem like a bruise. Melanoma is much less common than toenail fungus, but it can be life-threatening if not caught early.
Both toenail fungus and melanoma can appear as a dark stripe on the toenail and may increase in size over time. The toenail can become split and damaged in both conditions.
Toenail fungus is more likely to cause thickening of the toenail and a buildup of material underneath it. Melanoma causes the skin of the nailbed to change color, which does not happen with toenail fungus, but it can be difficult to see.
Because melanoma can be very aggressive, its important to have your doctor examine a darkened toenail. Your doctor can confirm the diagnosis of toenail fungus by looking at clippings under a microscope and of melanoma by taking a biopsy.
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What Should I Do If My Toenail Is Falling Off
First, dont panic. Even if your toenail falls off, it will grow back within three to six months. However, getting treatment from your trusted podiatrist can help to protect your toe while your nail grows back and prevent further infection from developing. If you sustain an injury or notice symptoms of a fungal infection it is in your best interest to seek treatment before your nail becomes lose and detaches. Also, if you experience any pain, swelling, discharge or odor, make an appointment for treatment before your condition becomes worse.
Your podiatrist will provide treatment and medication to heal your nail and nail bed and clear it of infection. If necessary, your doctor may remove any loose parts of your nail to prevent it from tearing and causing more pain or infection.
Will Toenail Grow Back Normal After Fungus
If the infection is deep and youve had it for a while, your doctor may want to remove all or part of your nail. A new nail usually grows back, but it might take a year or so. While its coming back, your doctor will likely give you a cream or other treatment to put on your nail bed to keep fungus away.
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Get An Early Start On Summer
To treat some of these toenail treatments, a podiatrist will often cut down the toenail or remove it. Thats why winter care is important. Your toenails need time to grow back.
Get a head start on summer by taking care of your toenails now. Start with a visit to the podiatrist and make sure to follow up with good foot care at home. By the time summer hits, your toenails will be strong, smooth and healthy.
How Do You Get A Fungal Nail Infection
Most fungal nail infections occur as a result of the fungi that cause athletes foot infecting the nails.
These fungi often live harmlessly on your skin, but they can sometimes multiply and lead to infections. The fungi prefer warm, dark and moist places like the feet.
Youre more likely to get a fungal nail infection if you:
- dont keep your feet clean and dry
- wear shoes that cause your feet to get hot and sweaty
- walk around barefoot in places where fungal infections can spread easily, such as communal showers, locker rooms and gyms
- have damaged your nails
- have a weakened immune system
- have certain other health conditions, such as diabetes, psoriasis or peripheral arterial disease
Fungal nail infections can be spread to other people, so you should take steps to avoid this if you have an infection.
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How Do I Know If My Toenail Fungus Is Healing
Nail fungus can be resistant to treatment and nails take a long time to grow out, so it can take several weeks or months for an infection to be fully resolved. You will know that the treatment is working and the infection is clearing up when you see growth of a new, healthy nail from the base of the nail bed.
Toenail Growth: How Long It Takes For A Toenail To Grow Back
Chances are you, or someone you know has lost a toenail at some point. Whether it was from sports or a falling object, detached toenails are quite common. Other than the obvious yuck factor, there are typically few ill effects.
But, thats not always the case. In this article, we explain the various reasons your toenails might fall off, how to treat a fully- or semi-detached toenail, and how long it actually takes for a toenail to grow back.
Toenails are thickened extensions of the top layer of our skin. Like our skin, toenails are made of keratin, a type of protective protein that is less prone to scratching or tearing than other cell types our body produces. Keratin is particularly tough.
As the cover to your nail bed, toenails are put under a great deal of stress. Everyday pressures include rubbing against your shoes, a stubbed toe, the presence of bacteria and fungi, and being your toes protector against falling objects. These types of situations can damage the toenail, sometimes to the point of it falling off completely.
Not only does a nail expose the nail bed below, but it can also be painful, and difficult to ensure a toenail properly grows back in the place of the lost nail. Next, we break down why your toenails fall off in the first place, the rate of toenail growth, as well as some tips and tricks for healthy nail growth.
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How To Help A Toenail Grow Back Quickly
This article was medically reviewed by Luba Lee, FNP-BC, MS and by wikiHow staff writer, Megaera Lorenz, PhD. Luba Lee, FNP-BC is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and educator in Tennessee with over a decade of clinical experience. Luba has certifications in Pediatric Advanced Life Support , Emergency Medicine, Advanced Cardiac Life Support , Team Building, and Critical Care Nursing. She received her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Tennessee in 2006.There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 19 testimonials and 91% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 911,870 times.
If youve lost a toenail, you probably want it to grow back as quickly as possible. While theres only so much you can do to speed up the process, there are a few simple things you can do to help your nail regrow. As your nail heals, you’ll need to protect the exposed nail bed by keeping it clean and moisturized. You can also soak your nail in a saltwater solution to moisturize the area and prevent infection. There is some evidence that biotin supplements and certain other vitamins can stimulate hair and nail growth, so talk to your doctor about using supplements to support the healing process.
Know It Need Not Be Your Only Option
As already mentioned, nail removal is usually a last resort, after other methods have failed to be effective. As such, your doctor is not likely to recommend or even mention nail removal before trying oral and topical medications, ointments, and various other treatments.
Depending on the precise issue, many people have found great success and healing using all kinds of other treatments. Because nail fungus is a very common reason for toenail removal, look at thesedifferentoptions for how to safely and effectively treat toenail fungus.
However, the more severe the case and the longer it has gone without treatment, the more likely your doctor will insist on nail removal as the only possible option.
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Softening And Scraping Away The Nail
As it can take a long time for antifungal medication to work, some people may prefer to use a treatment that involves softening and removing infected parts of nail over a few weeks.
Treatment kits are available from pharmacies that contain a 40% urea paste, plasters and a scraping device. The paste softens the infected parts of the nail, allowing them to be scraped away so they can be gradually replaced with healthy nail.
To use the treatment:
Can Toenail Fungus Spread Internally If Not Treated
The slightest sign of toenail fungus e.g. minor discoloration must not be ignored. Ignoring toenail fungus could prove to be very costly in a short time. Many people tend to ignore it because it can seem really insignificant.
The dangers of neglecting toenail fungus infection include:
Foot pain: an untreated toenail fungus infection can quickly deteriorate into thick, brittle, and crumbly nails which could be very painful. In this situation, it can become quite difficult to walk especially when wearing shoes.
Fast spread: toenail fungus can quickly spread to surrounding skin and other nails if not treated promptly. The spread of this infection could result in a skin condition called athletes foot. This condition is characterized by red, itchy, and cracked skin. Untreated toenail fungus can also become jock itch when it spreads to the genitals.
Widespread infection: for people with underlying health issues, toenail fungus infection can quickly spread to the skin where it can cause a crack hence opening the skin for bacteria infection. This can become deadly when it enters the bloodstream hence toenail fungus must be treated promptly.
Lower quality of life: toenail fungal infections are not life-threatening for most people but could however greatly impact the quality of life if left untreated.
Treatments
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What Is The Treatment For Fungal Nail
Your foot is the ideal breeding ground for nail fungi that thrive on nails. Fungi thrive in a warm, moist environment. You can be exposed in steamy locker rooms. Wearing the same pair of sweaty tennis shoes or socks for too long can also cause problems.17
- Tea tree oil can be an effective treatment for fungus on your toenails.18
- Ingredients in clear nail polish can kill or halt the spread of toenail fungus. You will need to re-paint the affected nail numerous times for more than a year for the best results.19
- Creams that include ingredients made from thyme or thyme oil can kill nail fungus and other kinds of fungus that cause infections.20,21
- Laser therapy has been very effective at killing nail funguses.22
A fungal nail infection wont go away on its own.
If you suspect you have a nail fungus, speak to your doctor about taking antifungal medications.23 If your fungal nail is severe, your doctor may remove it to promote a new, healthier nail growing in its place.24
Are you concerned that your nail fungus is serious? Speak with your doctor or podiatrist about antibiotic treatment. This will keep the fungus from spreading to the rest of your foot.
Will The Toenail Regrow Safely After Ingrown Removal
Ingrown toenails are common, so its not unusual to have them removed. Once the culprit nail is gone, the last thing you want is to re-grow another ingrown nail and deal with the pain all over again.
- You may not need to have your ingrown toenail removed. Soaking the affected foot in warm water, possibly with Epsom salt as well, can relieve the symptoms. You can also slide dental floss under the nail to help separate it from your skin.10
- Sometimes, even with these treatments, your doctor will need to remove your toenail. Your podiatrist will numb your toe with local anesthesia. The nail can then be removed using a chemical agent called phenol or with a laser treatment procedure.11
- Sometimes, after an ingrown toe is completely removed, it will grow back misshapen. You can prevent abnormal nail growth by having only part of the toenail removed.12
Nobody wants an ingrown toenail. But thanks to local anesthetics, ingrown toenail removal surgery can be pain-free.
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Why Toenail Fungus Is So Stubborn
A fungal infection in your toenails is typically caused by a tiny organism called dermatophyte fungus. This type of fungus thrives in warm, moist environments think public swimming pools or locker rooms where it can be easily transferred between people.
Once you pick up the infection, it can spread fairly quickly, largely because you keep your feet inside shoes, creating the perfect environment for fungal growth.
Making matters worse, your toenails are fairly thick and made up of many layers, which means the fungus can set up shop deep within these layers, making it more difficult to target. In moderate-to-severe cases, the fungus can even get into the matrix of your nail, which means any new toenail growth is already infected.
Rounding out the list of hurdles is the fact that your toes dont benefit from great circulation, so your immune system is less likely to detect and fight off the foreign invaders.
What all of this amounts to is that many people think that a toe fungal infection is coming back when it never really went away in the first place.
When To See A Doctor For Discolored Nails
Most of the time, discolored toenails can be treated with over-the-counter medicines or items you already have at home. However, you may need to make an appointment with a dermatologist if you suspect a severe fungal infection or have other symptoms besides toenail discoloration. If you experience bleeding, sharp pain, or swelling, contact your doctor.
For more information about treating discolored toenails, contact the UPMC Department of Dermatology or call 412-647-4200.
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Should I Cut Off My Fungus Toenail
If you do have a toenail fungus, your doctor will likely recommend one or more of the following treatment options: Trimming the Toenail Trimming the toenail is usually combined with medication, but having a podiatrist periodically trim the nail down is helpful and allows the medication to work better, says Sundling.
How Do Healthy Toenails Look
Healthy toenails have a smooth surface and no ridges. They look pink or nude in color with no ridges or discoloration. Watch for these warning signs that your toenails need medical attention.
Yellowing nails. This is an early sign of onychomycosis or fungal nail.
Thick, brittle toenails. If your toenails seem to have gotten thicker and they crumble when you cut or file them, you probably have an advanced case of nail fungus.
Most home remedies and over-the-counter treatments for nail fungus dont work. Only a podiatrist can prescribe the correct treatments to clear the fungus and heal your nails.
When treating nail fungus, a podiatrist will sometimes file the afflicted nail down to a thin layer and prescribe a topical treatment. In some cases, youll need to have the entire toenail removed to allow a fresh one to grow in.
Black toenails. A dark, discolored toenail could be a subungual hematoma, which is a bruise on the nail bed under the toe. Its usually the result of trauma to your foot.
In some cases, the toenail will fall off and a new one will grow in. You should still see a foot care doctor because subungual hematoma often means there is damage to the nail bed. Black toenails can also indicate a nail fungus or an underlying melanoma.
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How Does Toenail Fungus Start
Toenail fungus usually enters the nail bed when there has been an injury to the area, such as a crack or a split. Once the fungus enters, the warm, dark environment that it finds in shoes and socks allow it to grow and spread. The fungus starts by growing under the nail bed, making it very difficult to reach with any sort of medication.
My Nail Has Been Loose For A While When Will It Fall Off
This really depends on the cause for it becoming loose, how severe it is, and where the damage to the nail originally occurred. For example, if you had some bleeding right at the base of the nail, it may take weeks or months for it to fall off if it does at all. But if you had severe damage and your entire nail is currently black, it may only take days or weeks.
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