so i get ingrown big toenails, i have tried toenail surgery to reduce the size of my toenails, but the problem persists.
I have found that grinding down the top layers of the toe nail instead of the ends provides long lasting relief, but also somewhat immediate relief of currently ingrown nails by somewhat alleiviating the pressure.
i posit the majority of ingrown toe nails can be relieved by a simple grind down of the top layers of the nail rather than the end points. From a structural POV the top layers push down on the end of the nails and give it rigidity against the natural shape of the toe’s meat.
reducing that rigidity allows a more natural adaption of the nail bed to the nail meat that does not cause need for surgery.
Go to a doctor.
I am not a doctor. You should not do anything I describe herein and should consult a medical professional.
I fixed them myself a few times on each foot, trialing and erroring until I found a solution that since using it, has worked well for me in every case.
Note in less extreme cases, you can try to cut a little V in the middle-end of the nail. In my cases, it was much too bad for this to work.
I sanitize the toe and an x-acto knife with a new blade (pointed tip, triangular in shape) that has been cleaned of any foreign substances (such as the oil they sometimes come covered in) with 99% isopropyl and begin cutting a straight, vertical line on the side of the nail that has the issue, as close to the edge as I find reasonable. I go very slow and as light as I can, tracing that line over and over, as I don’t want an x-acto knife plunging into my toe itself. Eventually I make my way through the nail, but the nail is still connected under the cuticle. From this point onward, every day, I unravel cotton balls into strips and wet them thoroughly with alcohol, and then secure a strip or thick, folded pad to my toe with medical tape. The cotton should be very wet, but not dripping wet.
I found that regular bandaids were not effective due to adhesion issues and because they lack the ability to hold enough alcohol in their padding. Each day the skin around the nail will begin to die a little bit and dry out. I use sanitized forceps and the sanitized x-acto to cut a bit more and to pull on the edge of the nail each day (in an up and out fashion and occasionally away from the toe), but try not to force it too much. Eventually the nail breaks and comes off. Where it was dug into the flesh of the toe, there will be a small hole. At this time I sanitize the entire toe and the wound with alcohol. Finally, and the most important part of this process - I do the same process as previously described with the cotton, alcohol, and tape to bandage the toe every day, or twice per day as needed until the nail grows back in correctly. If this is not done, it is likely it will grow back ingrown and you will be at step 1 again.
In my experience, I had to keep it santized with alcohol and very dry. I found that taping it up wet with products such as polysporin prevented healing and would result in the nail becoming ingrown when it grew back in, as well as causing pain and increased inflamation. Using alcohol, day to day the pain lessened and it was able to grow back in normally each time. Needless to say as well, but you want to stay off of that foot as much as possible as walking on it during this process can lead to inflammation.
This process has taken me anywhere between 3 days to 2 weeks depending on how badly ingrown it was.
When it gets fixed it is great, there is almost instant relief from the pain.