QUESTION: Toenail Surgery
In January this year I had surgery to remove 4 sides to 3 toenails as they were ingrowing. I suffered a lot afterwards with discomfort and recently my nail has began cracking and falling off. I have recently been in hospital as one was so bad it actually split across the centre splitting my nail in half but is still attached to the top. I was told to leave a bandage on for 1 week to see if the nail would drop off but this hasn’t happened. I was wondering what the cause of this could be?
ANSWER
It can take a long time for toenails to settle down after a partial nail avulsion (this is the medical name for what you had done). Sometimes the whole toenail will loosen and come off and you have to wait for a new toenail to completely grow up from the base, and for the old toenail to be pushed off, before it starts to look normal again. So it can be months (even up to a year) after the surgery before the toenail looks “normal” again. During this time you should carefully clip the old nail as it grows up. It will eventually fall off given time.
Very often as the old nail is growing out this is the trauma line of the old toenail, and represents the part of the nail that was being formed at the time of the surgery and it is this point that is now causing problems as it is growing out.Cut away as much of the nail that is towards the end of the toenail or just file it smooth, if its cracking then clear nail varnish will help.
But the best idea is to see the podiatrist who did it for you as will only take two mins to sort out.
Good luck
Mike ONeill
Consultant Podiatrist