I’m not sure why you’re positing anything when there’s established knowledge about ingrown nails, and professionals that can both diagnose any structural abnormalities, and treat them using already proven modalities.

The answer is to go back to your podiatrist and follow their instructions.

If you’re having chronic ingrown nails, there’s an issue that needs to be corrected, and you aren’t going to improvise a solution, especially with tools that aren’t designed for the job.

Seriously here, you’re making your problem worse with what you’re doing. If your nails are shaped weird or are growing abnormally, you aren’t going to do anything useful just grinding them thin. Best case, you don’t cause more ingrown nails. Worst case you get more of them, and they’re worse because now they’re flexing more severely, and thus dig into the nail bed in worse ways.

Nobody here can diagnose your underlying problem. Could be your footwear, could be a malformation, could be fungal (though unlikely that it wouldn’t have been caught previously, fungal infection s can cause nails to grow in odd ways and lead to chronic ingrown nails), could be even less likely things.

But you aren’t going to dremel your way out of it.

Go see your doctor and find out what’s causing the issue to begin with.

I have a recurring problem with ingrown nails but ONLY if they get cut too close. If they grow out everything is fine.

When they get cut too close I’ve found putting something small under the edge of the nail to act as a spacer works. Like a tiny rolled up piece of toilet paper.

You should see a podiatrist for your issue

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.

Just go to the doc. That’s your foot. Leave it to a pro.

Fro recurring ones, the surgery is followed up with an acid treatment that kills part of the nail bed, so the nail stops growing so wide. I have had it done on both big toes, on both sides. Haven’t had any issues in over 15 years.

Fixed issue. Go to your podiatrist and get the permanent fix, a matrixectomy.

Clearly I don’t recommend this, but years ago after having an ingrown toenail causing months of pain, I got drunk, decided I’d had enough, and cut a sliver out of it with a breadknife. Ridiculous decision, but cured it forever.

In terms of pain alleviation before surgery (medically trained or otherwise), I can highly recommend stuffing the toenail with tissue paper as close to the ingrown part as possible. Poke it in with a toothpick or something. It acts as a cushion and can train the nail to grow away from the skin.

Unintended bonus of having my own ingrown toenail though: I have always played football and refused to stop even when the pain was at it worst because I love playing it so much. I’m right footed and couldn’t kick the ball with it at all during that time. Instead I forced myself to use my left constantly. I was shocking initially, but weeks later became a two-footed player. Best thing that happened to improve my game long term.

Mine have been surgically cut. This was the only thing that helped.

I used to have repeated ingrown problems with one of my big toes. The eventual solution was the doctor chemically burning my nailbed in that toe and now I don’t have a toenail there and it doesn’t grow back at all

i use a grinder similar to a drimmel that i originally bought for my dog’s nails and took off the shield to try it on mine, works best after a long shower, careful with heat! that can hurt, a damp nail helps