Fungi grow best in warm, moist places, and they can spread from person to person. You can get a fungal nail infection from walking barefoot in public showers or pools or by sharing personal items, such as towels and nail clippers.
Fungal spores can live on all kinds of surfaces, including metal toenail clippers for months. When you cut your fungal nail with your clippers, you can easily transmit the fungi to your other toenails or reinfect yourself. In fact, the CDC recommends properly disinfecting all nail tools before every use.
Sterilize nail clippers. Soak in 70% or 90% rubbing alcohol for 20 minutes. Use a Q-tip and throw away after each use.
Toenail fungus is actually very contagious, and can be spread by touching infected surfaces. A common fungus is athlete's foot, which is spread when you step barefoot in an infected area, like a locker room or public space.
An infected nail may separate from the nail bed. Nail fungus is a common infection of the nail. It begins as a white or yellow-brown spot under the tip of your fingernail or toenail. As the fungal infection goes deeper, the nail may discolor, thicken and crumble at the edge.
If you share a bed with another person, the fungus may transfer to them via shared linens. Wearing clean socks to bed and washing sheets regularly minimizes transmission risk.
Put nail clippers into a small bowl of boiling hot water, scrub with a toothbrush, wipe with rubbing alcohol and dry with a clean towel. Bleach is a very good disinfectant: Soak nail clippers and tools in undiluted bleach and wipe them dry with a paper towel.
Your spouse is also at risk when sharing bed sheets, socks and shoes. As fungal spores can stay dormant but viable for up to three months in their favoured environments, your family may still remain vulnerable long after you've started covering up your feet or taking other protective measures.
Oral antifungal drugs.
These drugs are often the first choice. One option is itraconazole (Sporanox). These drugs help a new nail grow free of infection, slowly replacing the infected part. You typically take this type of drug daily for 6 to 12 weeks.
Fungal nail infections typically don't go away on their own, and the best treatment is usually prescription antifungal pills taken by mouth. In severe cases, a healthcare professional might remove the nail completely. It can take several months to a year for the infection to go away.
Fungus is already a difficult infection to get rid of, and what surprises many people is that fungus can live in your shoes for up to 20 months. Thus, continuously treating your shoes throughout treatment is essential. There are many ways to treat shoes including Lysol, anti-fungal mists and UV shoe cleaning devices.
If you do not have Isopropyl Alcohol, you can boil your metal tools in water for 20 minutes. Be sure to wash your hands before picking up the disinfected tools. When soaking is complete, allow them to dry on a clean paper towel.
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.
You should also keep the nail trimmed. If you let your toenails grow long, it creates more places for the fungus to grow. If you want to do more than that, over-the-counter lacquers similar to nail polish are available that you can put on your toenails. Those treatments help keep the fungus from growing.
Yes, many types of toenail fungi, including tinea unguium, are quite contagious. You can spread the fungus to someone else through direct contact. You can also get toenail fungus by touching an infected surface.
The fastest way to eliminate the infection is through toenail laser treatment. Laser nail therapy specifically targets the microorganisms under your nail while leaving the keratin intact. In just a few treatments, the infection can be entirely eliminated.
Lamisil Terbinafine Antifungal Cream treats fungus all over the body, including athlete's foot, making it the best overall choice. The Fungi Nail Anti-Fungal Ointment is infused with five oils and makes for a budget-friendly option.
Tea tree oil is commonly used to treat acne, athlete's foot, lice, nail fungus and insect bites.
Eradicil is a non-biological liquid laundry sanitiser and detergent that contains three disinfectants and antifungals.
Toenail fungus is a highly-contagious, easy-to-spread, hard-to-treat infection. It thrives in warm, damp environments, like pools, locker rooms, and even showers. It transfers to other surfaces on contact, like your feet or things like towels and footwear.
Effective products include efinaconazole (Jublia), tavaborole (Kerydin) and ciclopirox (Penlac). All require daily applications, and it may take as long as a year to see noticeable improvement. These products may work for early, superficial fungal infections because they kill fungi on the surface of the nail.
Your podiatrist can help you take care of not only your feet and ankles, but also your toenails. One very common condition that podiatrists treat are fungal toenail infections.
Toenails and fingernails protect your skin, but you might lose a nail due to trauma, fungus, or other reasons. Most nails grow back, although the rate of regrowth can vary from person to person. It might take several months or a year to grow back.
Many people pick up the fungi when they have skin-to-skin contact with someone who has a fungal infection such as athlete's foot or ringworm on their hands. Another common way to get a fungal nail infection is by walking barefoot in a warm, moist area such as a pool deck or locker room.