If you have an ingrown toenail or are prone to them, you may find yourself wondering what you can and should do to deal with them properly. Learn some of the things to do about ingrown toenails. Then, you can be sure you are doing everything you can to prevent and treat them properly going forward.

Don't Wear Shoes that Cramp Your Toes

The shoes you wear are an important part of taking care of and preventing ingrown toenails. While some shoes make a fashion statement, they are not necessarily good for the feet. If your toes are cramped in a shoe and you do not have any wiggle room, your feet can suffer the consequences.

If you already have an ingrown toenail, it can get worse and be more painful when your toes are cramped up in a pair of shoes. If you are prone to ingrown toenails, cramped shoes can help to cause them, especially if you wear those shoes regularly. 

Be sure that you choose shoes that fit you properly and give your toes ample space. This will help to keep your feet comfortable and reduce the ingrown toenail issue.

Don't Try to Dig It Out Yourself

One of the worst things you can do when you have an ingrown toenail is to try to dig it out and remove it yourself. Oftentimes, you can do more harm than good when attempting this. The toenail is embedded in the skin surrounding your toenail. This means that you would have to further injure that skin to get your toenail out. 

More often than not, when you try to do this, you leave shards or pieces of nail still in there. And by injuring the skin further, you can inadvertently cause an infection to develop. One method you can use is to gently lift the nail and put a piece of cotton (like from a cotton ball) under the nail and let it rest. Do not try to cut the nail or dig out further. 

Otherwise, your best option is to go to the podiatrist or your general practitioner for help. They can better examine the nail and carefully remove it. This often requires numbing agents for your toe and specialized tools to ensure the entire problematic portion of the nail is removed. 

Now that you better know what to do about ingrown toenails, you can be sure you are doing what you can to prevent and treat them going forward.