A day usually does not go by in the office when I do not see a patient who comes to me saying that there toenails are ugly. With spring here, and summer right around the corner, everyone is preparing for flip-flop season. What better way to prepare than by seeing your podiatrist to get your toenails into shape. Ugly toenails (thickened, discolored, crumbly nails) can be caused by many different things. Most commonly, this type of presentation is caused by a nail fungus. Nail fungus is contagious and is generally seen after walking barefoot on a pool deck, locker room, hotel room floor, etc. Treatment is important to not only prevent spreading on your feet but also to prevent yourself from sharing with your whole family.
Treatment options include topical paint on medications (anti-fungal’s) or oral medicines. Some people swear by using Listerine or Vick’s Vapor Rub for treatment but I have not seen any good results with this. If you go into the foot care aisle at your local food store or pharmacy, you will be inundated by a ton of anti-fungal products for toenails. There are far too many products for me to discuss individual ones here. My advice would be to see a podiatrist before using any of these products. Most of these products need to be used for 12 months to see full results and you would not want to waste your time and money using these products unless a podiatrist thinks they will work. There are also oral medicines that can be taken which work better than topical medications in most cases but there are drug interactions with these medications as well as more side effects.
If your toenails are preventing you from wearing sandals or you are embarrassed by the way your toenails look, don’t wait, call Quality Foot Care of Doylestown at 215-230-9707 to make an appointment with one of our board certified podiatrists today!
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