Ingrown Toe Nails
Perhaps it started as a mild discomfort or a little reddened skin around the upper corners of your toe nail. But after a couple of weeks that redness turned into radioactive, glowing red accompanied by a nice and oozing puddle of pus. The point of no return was probably a nail cutting spree gone wrong. Perhaps, next to murderously chopping off your toe nails you are one of the millions of Americans out there experiencing a weight problem. Yes, weight can mess up more than one thing about your body, and yes, it can cause you pain in more ways than you think.
The main cause for ingrown nails, experts say, is inappropriate footwear and sock use. Alarmingly enough, there are lots of people out there who wear too big or to small shoe sizes, either constricting or forcing their feet to grasp onto whatever part of the shoe they can. The biggest problem has got to do with smaller-sized shoes, as well as with their shape. If a shoe is too small for your feet, the pressure of the shoe combined with the natural bloating of the foot throughout the day are bound to put on some serious pressure on that walking buddy of yours.
Together with shoes, come socks. As with shoes, your socks should fit your feet comfortably without putting too much stress on them or odd-fit the foot. Combined, ill-fitting shoes and socks can put the wrong amount of pressure in all the wrong places, especially the toes. Ever taken off your shoes to find your feet decorated with pressed-on sock or shoe marks? Well, perhaps you might want to rethink the whole “suffocated foot” idea.
Weight is an important factor too. Experts say it is perhaps not a matter of the nail growing oddly inside the skin, but a matter of too much skin growing over the nail. Overweight people cause their feet to receive a lot of pressure. All that weight falls upon foot skin and of course toe skin. As the weight of the person increases, so does the pressure and the skin growing around the nail. But either way, the nail cuts through the skin around it, causing the patient incredible pain, discomfort and a very good chance of catching a bacterial infection in one of the most moist and unventilated areas of the human body. Ideal for infections to grow and spread. Hail to pus!
Experts advice men cut straight across the nail when trimming. This cut, instead of the rounded corner cut, avoids the nail from growing inside. Cutting the nail the right length will also avoid ingrowing tendencies. A good tip to avoid this painful condition is finding a pedicurist versed in the art of feet. Though you might be going all funny face on this option, a foot specialist is likely the best person to take care of your feet. Besides, nowadays going a little metro – specially about personal care – is totally acceptable. Go ahead, find a pedicurist near you.
