How much discomfort does an ingrown nail give? often at home you don’t know what to do and you look for a thousand possible remedies: here is a natural remedy to disinfect and improve aesthetically the ingrown nail, preparing it to prepare it for an eventual medical treatment.
The ingrown toenail (onicocriptosis) is a disease that occurs when the lateral edge of the nail penetrates the soft tissue of the lateral nail folds, with the appearance of redness and swelling of the affected part accompanied by pain, first at the pressure, then continuous and sometimes pulsating. These phenomena are the consequence of acute bacterial infections that determine the appearance of abscesses and, if the episodes are recurrent, of the production of granulation tissue.
Ingrown nail: symptoms and prevention
The symptoms of an ingrown toenail can vary depending on the severity and are divided into:
- mild symptoms: these may include inflammation or swelling of the skin with pain in the fingertip, or edema, ie an accumulation of fluid in the area surrounding the tip of the finger;
- moderate symptoms: these symptoms may include increased inflammation of the fingertip with white or yellow pus that forms in the area of the ingrown nail or a slight haemorrhage in the affected area;
- severe symptoms: may include acute pain, followed by considerable inflammation, excess skin may form around the tip of the affected finger (hypertrophy) or even a serious infection.
The ingrown toe nail is certainly the most common form, but the problem can also affect the other toes, and is a source of considerable discomfort for those suffering from it: chronic inflammations, infections, abscesses, granulomas are reflected on the correct posture of the patient with the difficulty of identifying suitable footwear.
Predisposing factors of the ingrown nail can be:
- shoes that are tight or unfit for the foot exerting excessive pressure;
- poor hygiene or excessive sweating, which make the skin more fragile and therefore more vulnerable;
- incorrect way of cutting the nail (for example cutting the nail too short or too round, in fact, facilitates wedging of the nail plate in the skin);
- fungal infections, nail diseases, but also diabetes, obesity, incorrect posture and, again, arthritis, congenital deformations of the foot.
The best treatment remains prevention and care of personal hygiene.
The prevention of this pathology consists in wearing suitable, comfortable (not pointed, not too narrow and not too wide) shoes, taking care of hygiene and carefully drying the foot, learning the correct way to cut the nail by giving it a rectangular shape and letting the side corners protrude slightly, avoiding tearing the edges that fall apart (avoid the rounded cut, nor the too short one). Practice good foot hygiene, take care of it and wash it regularly with soap and water.
Ingrown nail: how to cure it
Not treating an ingrown toenail can result in the infection of the finger with the ingrown nail and in the worst case favoring the formation of gangrene.
Among the remedies for ingrown toenail the most widespread consists in the application of an antibacterial flanked by numerous foot baths in hot water; in this way the skin will soften favoring the exit of the ingrown corner, or our “ingrown toenail gel”, to remove inflammation and pain before the aesthetic treatment of the ingrown nail.
In most cases, an ingrown toenail can be successfully treated by removing the problematic nail section or even removing the entire nail. Consultation with a doctor who can examine the ingrown nail situation guarantees a correct care and a mile treatment to follow to improve and prevent ingrown nails.
An Ingrown nail treatment: a natural gel Made in Como
The Gel for the treatment of Ingrown Nail, by Microcosm (a company from Como located in the mountains of the Larian triangle), helps to refresh, purify and remove inflammation in the area around the ingrown nail. This gel in fact eliminates pain and redness caused by the surrounding skin inflammation thus preparing the ingrown nail to the specific pedicure.
As for the natural formulation (also the inci here is a guarantee), this gel, based on water and aloe barbadensis, also contains vegetable oils (almond oil, castor oil, sunflower oil, St. John’s wort oil), oleolites spagyric (of hedera helix, of sage), colloidal silver, specific essential oils (of cypress, eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree, mint, juniper). Here are two words from Herbal Technician:
- Aloe Barbadensis gel: it is obtained from the leaves of aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller, Liliaceae), whose pulp contains numerous classes of active substances: the numerous sugars have a primary role in ensuring the softening and moisturizing action; the organic acids (citric, malic, succinic) are the a-hydroxy acids of which the exfoliating and regenerative action in the cells of the epidermis is known; pectins, mucilages and amino acids are nutrients, moisturizers and skin softeners. Aloe is able to penetrate inside the injured tissues, to relieve pain, to act as an anti-inflammatory;
- vegetable oils: nourishing and moisturizing almond oil for the skin is useful in the case of nails (since they are made of keratin) and in particular can be a valid aid for brittle nails, as it strengthens the nails; castor oil, restructuring and nourishing; sunflower oil contains a high percentage (up to 75%) of linoleic acid and vitamin E and has a restructuring action on the tissues, stimulating the renewal of the epidermis and the regrowth of nails; hypericum oil is instead known to be soothing and refreshing;
- the spreading oleolites: of ivy, in cosmetics used for its anti-inflammatory and sage action, useful for its anti-inflammatory and disinfectant properties;
- colloidal silver, well-known powerful antibacterial;
- essential oils (and here I use the knowledge of Porf. Marco Valussi): the essential oil of cypress, antiseptic, deodorant, decongestant; eucalyptus essential oil for antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory action; the essential oil of lavender, antimicrobial with a slight local anesthetic action and also shows a weak but broad spectrum antifungal activity (Lis-Balchin, Deans, Hart, 1994; Maruzzella, 1969; Yousef, Tawil, 1980); the essential oil of tea tree, with a broad spectrum antibacterial activity; the essential oil of mint, antibacterial and antifungal, antifungal (the in vitro antifungal activity of peppermint EO is high and superior to that of the bifionazole fungicide (Sokovic et al., 2009)), antipruritic (activity related to refreshing and anesthetic action of menthol partly due to the action on cold receptors) and juniper, indicated against mycobacterial, bacterial and fungal infections. The combination of mint and eucalyptus essential oil is also a psychological relaxant, an action that lavender also plays.
How to use our natural gel on the ingrown nail?
Simply clean the affected part and apply the gel by massaging on the part until completely absorbed after having properly cleaned it.
For any clarification or for more information Contact us.
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