Before you trim your toenails, soften them by soaking your feet in warm water for 5 to 10 minutes. Then dry your feet and toenails with a towel. Nail nippers, shown below, work best for trimming thickened toenails.
Vicks has a little impact on toenails. Vicks Vaporub softens and lightens toenails. This makes it look like the fungus is being treated. Vicks may have some antifungal qualities, but it is unable to penetrate the toenail well enough to cure the infection.
Epsom Salt:
Adding Epsom salt to your warm foot soak help soften and exfoliate the skin. Add half a cup of Epsom salt to your warm soapy water. You may also rub the salt directly on the surrounding skin to help exfoliate the skin.
Gehwol Nail Softener works quickly and painlessly to soften hard and difficult to trim nails. It makes an excellent home treatment for corns and calluses around toenails, as well as uninfected ingrown toenails.
“Applying Vicks VapoRub to fungus-infected toenails can clear up the notoriously hard-to-treat condition. Michigan State University clinicians found that applying the product daily to the infected nail cleared the condition in 32 of 85 patients, though it took anywhere from 5 to 16 months…”
Place a THIN coat of Vicks on top of the nails. Make sure only the nails are covered with the Vicks. Try to avoid getting the Vicks on the skin or in between the toes as it might irritate the skin. Apply the Vicks once a day either in the morning or the evening.
The growth rate of nails decreases when people get older. This results in thickening because nail cells pile up. The process of nail cells piling up is referred to as onychocytes. Another reason why fingernails don't thicken as much is their growth rate is smaller than the growth rate of toenails.
Nail psoriasis sometimes causes too much keratin to grow under the nail. This overgrowth is called subungual hyperkeratosis. People with hyperkeratosis may notice a white, chalky substance under the nail. When this occurs in the toenails, the pressure of shoes pushing down on the nails might cause pain.
The most common cause of thickened toenails is aging. Toenails thicken with age because the growth rate of the nail plate slows. Other reasons toenails may thicken include: A common skin condition called psoriasis.
Repairing thick or damaged toenails takes a long time because they grow slowly. It can take up to a year to fix some toenail problems, even with ongoing treatment.
"It helps your cuticles, keeps your hands and nails hydrated, and works better than callus removal if you put it on your feet and wear socks overnight," says Nguyen. "The best part is that it's affordable and probably already in your medicine cabinet!" she adds.
Although age is the main cause of thickening toenails, there are other reasons why it occurs: Experiencing trauma to the nail bed over time (such as surgery, stubbing your toe, general wear and tear ) Diabetes – poor blood circulation or peripheral neuropathy. Peripheral heart disease, high blood pressure.
Sanding will first allow you to thin the nail in order to cut it effectively. Knowing how to sand nails is essential to learning how to cut thick toenails. Sanding should never be painful or result in bleeding. You should be able to sand all the way down to the skin under the nail without causing pain to your patient.
Revolutionary nail fungus laser therapy has an 80% success rate. Instead of medications or debridement, Dr. Frankel offers a laser therapy treatment with an 80% success rate at permanently treating nail fungus. It's painless and performed in-office with three 10-minute procedures every four weeks.
Within a week, you should begin to see improvements.
Are thick toenails always fungus? No, thick toenails are usually not fungus. The toenail root responds to pressure by growing a nail plate that is thicker and sometimes detached from the nail bed — a place where the fungus can hide and grow.
If dry, brittle, cracked, or peeling nails are your struggle, there are things you can do to get them back into good health. For weak, thin nails, soak them in extra virgin olive oil 10-15 minutes a day for a month, then twice a week thereafter.
filling a basin with 1 cup of vinegar. adding 2 cups of warm water. continuing to add 1 part vinegar, 2 parts water until the basin is full. soaking feet for 10 to 20 minutes.
There are many practical and safe home remedies for treating your ingrown toenails. The most popular treatment is a foot soak for ingrown toenail management, and many people use epsom salts as the best thing to soak feet in for ingrown toenail treatment.