Ingrown Toenail Symptoms

If you have an ingrown toenail, you know the pain it brings. It normally occurs on the big toe, but can occur occasionally on any of the others. The toenail grows deep into the skin at the side and causes not just pain, but sometimes inflammation and infection. If the ingrown toenail penetrates the skin and causes infection, it may require surgical treatment to take care of the problem. There are several ingrown toenail symptoms.

Pain & Redness

When you first develop an ingrown toenail, you notice a little pain and some reddening of the area. The pain is centered at the end of the toe next to the nail, but the entire tip of the toe might be red and painful.

Swelling & Heat

Initially, there is swelling with an ingrown toenail. The swelling becomes more pronounced as the condition continues. Normally, your toe feels warm to the touch. You don't, however, run a fever with the condition, unless an infection develops.

Extra Tissue

In an attempt to protect the tissue, you'll begin to notice that as the condition wears on, you'll develop an extra growth of skin or tissue around the point of the toe that imbeds into the skin.

Ooze

At some point, most people begin to notice an ooze of thin, yellowish fluid draining from the area where the toenail goes into the skin. This isn't pus, but a bodily response created by the nail causing irritation to the skin.

Infection

Occasionally the area becomes infected and an abscess develops. Just as with any abscess, it may have a white mound or simply leak fluid. The thin, yellowish fluid that once came from the area is now thicker and white or yellow, indicating that pus is escaping from the abscess.

Skin Color

The entire toe might be red, but the area of skin that surrounds the toenail may be white or lighter in color. Occasionally, if the infection is bad enough, you'll develop a fever.

Causes

If your parents had ingrown toenails, you are a candidate for the problem. Shoes that don't fit cause the problem, since poorly fitting shoes cause pressure and make the toenail grow abnormally. People that round the toenail when they cut it, rather than cutting straight across, often have ingrown toenails. Fungus infections that make the toenail wider or thicker, or repetitive damage that often occurs with certain sports, cause the problem too.