Ingrown toe nail - you cannot be serious??

Ingrown toenails. We’ve all at least heard of them and quite a few of us will have had one in our life. In general, ingrowing toe nails can be dealt with quickly by podiatrists. Nail surgery is a cause of great anxiety and we understand that, especially if your perception of nail surgery is having your nails “ripped off’, which we’ve heard more than a few times!


Most podiatrists theses days will have prescription only medication annotation in addition to their professional qualification. This means that those podiatrists can administer local anesthetic and perform nail surgery painlessly. If you need them the Podiatrist can  supply you with antibiotics if your nail is infected.

Most of the time ingrown nail are regarded as an annoyance and part of growing up. But there is a more, albeit rare, serious side to ingrown nails if left without intervention. 

This case highlights the plight of a 16 year old male patient who hid his ingrown toe nail at all costs. This is common and I’ve come across similar stories in the clinic a few times. Often its a fear of the treatment, and worries about not being able to take part in sporting activities is also another major factor in the delay of treatment.

For something so simple the risk is that left alone, infection can set in and is potentially very dangerous. This MRI shows the same toe which has become infected. In this case the infection has made its way into the distal phalanx of the big toe. This is known as osteomyelitis. This is potentially a whole different level of medical problem which can require admission to hospital for aggressive antibiotic therapy and poses a risk to the toe itself if it advances. Osteomyelitis can cause systemic illness involving fever and sepsis as the infection is then carried around the body from the original site.

The moral of the story is, don’t hide or ignore ingrowing nails. Trivial as it seems left unattended for long enough they can cause you a whole new level of problem which could have much more serious consequences. All avoidable with simple, painless nail surgery. So DONT hide it, show it to your PODIATRIST.