Painful Toe Nail

Do you have pain in your big toe that feels like there is something pressing up against your toenail? It is possible that you have a bone spur on the bone under your nail. If so, your nail may look perfectly normal, but your nail may hurt unbelievably. Now, the pain may be a lot better once you take your shoes off. This is because you no longer have pressure pushing against the prominent part of your bone.

There are multiple conditions that can cause pain in a toenail. You may have an ingrown toenail, fungus growing inside the nail, you may have dropped something on it and bruised it, or you could have a spur growing underneath the nail. There are multiple exams that your podiatrist can do to figure out what type of condition you are specifically dealing with. These including palpating the area around the nail to see where specifically the pain is coming from, taking x-rays to see what is going on with the bone and inspecting the color of the nail.

So, what if you do have a bony spur on your big toe? There are several options for helping treat the pain. The first couple are very conservative and may or may not help. You can put a cushioning sleeve over the top of the nail to keep your nail from bumping up against your shoe. You can also get deeper shoes so that your toe won’t bump up against them. Eventually though, if the pain isn’t going away, there is surgery that can be performed. It’s very minor and just involves shaving the excess bone off your big toe.

So, if you or someone you know has pain in their toenail and it is causing them a great deal of pain, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Stoneham or Middleton, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your nail. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.