Hello, this is Doctor Donald Pelto. Today, I'd like to
talk about ingrown toenails. As you can see, this picture above. This is a
patient that I saw in the office. He had an ingrown toenail. He was previously
seen in the emergency room of UMass, where a little portion of the nail came
back.
A
lot of times, when patients come in with this, they think, well, they didn't do
a good job at retreating my ingrown toenail when I went to the hospital.
Sometimes that's correct. Most of the time, a portion of the nail is removed,
but then they don't remove enough of it. When it grows back, it gets stuck into
the edge.
This
patient, it tends to grown back. It's been about two or three months. The
nail's grown back, but it's been stuck, right in the edge. It's become very,
very inflamed. You can see the redness. The extra tissue, that's called
hypergranular tissue. It becomes very painful for him. We have to numb up the
toe, and remove a portion of the nail.
Since
this has happened, he told me over eight times. I said we need to remove this
permanently. We're going to take a portion of the nail. On the following visit,
not today, we're going to take a portion of the nail and remove it utilizing
Phenol. That's actually a medication to kill the root of the nail.
As
well, this patient, he was on an antibiotic that was called Cephalexin for the
last week. That's why it's looking less red.
At
this point, for an ingrown toenail, that's what you should do. You should see a
professional. Don't let it get as bad as this one, but really have it treated
because this can be very, very painful, but it is quite preventable.
I
hope this helps you.
To your health,
Doctor Donald Pelto.