I recently had an ingrown toenail. The last time I had one (in high school) I let it get so bad that after gym class my white sock would be entirely red with blood. I had to go to a pediatrist who ended up using some kind of special scissors to cut a large chunk of my toenail off to fix it and wrapped it up for a while.
Presuming I would have to go through this again, and would need a referral, I went to my local physician. Not surprisingly, said it was indeed an ingrown toenail. But, surprisingly, her first suggestion was to prescribe me some antibiotics!
That was the first time in my life I had wondered about the suggested treatment, and I actually asked her "how would that help?" And I can't remember her answer, but it seemed really dumb, so I just said "no thanks" and asked what the alternatives were, and she said "to just let it grow out" after which I would be all fine.
Now, recalling this story, I remember someone telling me about "BRAIN" or something like it, an acronym that includes "risk" and "alternatives" and "intrusive" and something else.
I had the opposite experience. I went with an ingrown toenail to a urgent care, and was prescribed antibiotics that did nothing.
I finally went to a pediatrist who explained that people have ingrown toenails often, but it's typically not an issue. The only time you notice you have an ingrown toenail is when it becomes infected. He said that sometimes the antibiotics cure the infection, but it leaves the ingrown toenail intact to become infected again at a later date. He also said that it's hard to predict what type of bacteria will infect the toenail so it's hard to treat it properly and the antibiotic is a shot in the dark.
What he did was cut the ingrown toenail out with his special scissors and told me that if that toenail became ingrown again he'd do something called a "partial nail matrixectomy" My toenail became ingrown again about a year later and he did the matrixectomy. What happens is the toenail grows from a "matrix" at the bed of the nail, and they burn a tiny section of it with an acid and it scars. This prevents a few millimeters of the nail from growing, preventing it from ever becoming ingrown again. The toenail functions perfectly normally and looks normal after about a year.
I recently had an ingrown toenail. The last time I had one (in high school) I let it get so bad that after gym class my white sock would be entirely red with blood. I had to go to a pediatrist who ended up using some kind of special scissors to cut a large chunk of my toenail off to fix it and wrapped it up for a while.
Presuming I would have to go through this again, and would need a referral, I went to my local physician. Not surprisingly, said it was indeed an ingrown toenail. But, surprisingly, her first suggestion was to prescribe me some antibiotics!
That was the first time in my life I had wondered about the suggested treatment, and I actually asked her "how would that help?" And I can't remember her answer, but it seemed really dumb, so I just said "no thanks" and asked what the alternatives were, and she said "to just let it grow out" after which I would be all fine.
Now, recalling this story, I remember someone telling me about "BRAIN" or something like it, an acronym that includes "risk" and "alternatives" and "intrusive" and something else.