How to Treat an Ingrown Nail

The shoes that look good may not be the ones that feel good, and choosing style over comfort can sometimes cause pain. Ingrown toenails are one of the most common side effects of picking footwear that doesn't really fit your feet.

An ingrown nail curves down and into the surrounding skin as it grows, causing the skin to grow over the nail. Although fingernails can also become ingrown, toenails, especially the big toe, are more susceptible to this condition.

Ill-fitting shoes are one of the main causes of ingrown toenails. Other common causes include cutting your toenails incorrectly, injuring your toe or heredity. If you were born with nails that are too large for your toes or nails that naturally curve, you may be more at risk of developing ingrown toenails. You can work to prevent ingrown toenails by trimming your nails correctly and wearing shoes that give your toes more room. You should also trim your nails regularly, cutting them straight across the top and rounding the edges, to prevent them from growing too long.

Symptoms of ingrown nails include redness, swelling, pain and sometimes pus drainage. You can usually treat an ingrown nail on your own, but your doctor can also perform simple surgical procedures to treat recurrent ingrown nails. If an ingrown nail is left untreated for too long, it can become infected and require antibiotics, so it's best to take steps to remedy an ingrown nail as soon as possible.

If you opted for the stylish instead of the sensible shoes and now have an ingrown nail, you can begin treatment immediately [source: American Podiatric Medical Association]. Read on to learn how to treat an ingrown nail.

What Causes Hangnails?

You probably notice that you get more hangnails during the cold winter months. You might also notice that during the winter, your skin dries out really fast. Bingo! You've just hit on one of the main causes of hangnails. Anything that can dry out your skin, such as cold winter weather, harsh chemicals or frequent immersion in water can cause hangnails to develop.

If you are a nail biter, it's likely that you develop more hangnails than your friends who prefer not to nibble on their nails. Besides being bad for your teeth, biting your nails can damage your nail bed, which is the skin underneath the actual fingernail . A weak nail bed can result in more hangnails. Another cause of hangnails is a manicure gone awry -- an inept hand with the nail clippers or frequent cutting of the cuticles can cause hangnails .

Hangnails that aren't properly cared for can result in an infection called paronychia. There are three types of paronychia infection: bacterial, Candidal -- which is a type of yeast -- and fungal . An infection in the skin around your fingernail can be red, swollen and painful, and it may even emit pus.

Now that you know how hangnails happen, you're probably wondering how you can stop them before they start. Keep reading to find out.

Hangnail Tips and Treatments

Regardless of whether wild horses couldn't drag you away from your weekly manicure or your nail care arsenal contains only nail clippers and maybe a nail file, caring for your fingernails and the skin around them is important to your overall health. One annoying problem that even the most carefully groomed hands encounter is the dreaded hangnail. Though hangnails may seem rather insignificant in the grand scheme of health problems, they can become infected and lead to a handful of other issues. Fortunately, there are many ways to avoid hangnail hazards.

Hangnails actually don't have anything to do with your fingernails. Many people confuse hangnails with ingrown nails, a condition in which the corner of your nail grows into the soft skin of your nail bed . In fact, hangnails are the dry, sometimes brittle triangular-shaped tags of skin around your fingernails that can tear off . Because there are many different causes of hangnails, everyone gets them occasionally. But chronic, consistent hangnails can lead to bigger problems.

When the skin around your fingernails tears off, it opens the door to infection, especially when you consider all the bacteria your hands are exposed to every day, not to mention dishwater, cold weather and all the other things that dry out your hands in the first place. Fortunately, there are quick and easy ways to prevent hangnails that range from moisturizing often to pampering your hands with cuticle soaks and manicures.

If you just can't beat hangnails, there are also easy ways to treat them. Antibacterial lotions can often do the trick, and in more serious cases, a prescription antibiotic might be in order.

Of course, before you can avoid hangnails, you need to know what causes them. Keep reading to discover the common culprits.