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Ingrown toenails, though not a life-threatening health problem, can cause significant pain or discomfort in the affected toe. In severe cases, the infection caused by an ingrown toenail may spread into the toe bones. Ingrown toenails can affect any of the toes, though the big toe is most vulnerable to this health problem (due to the forces placed on it by the toe boxes of conventional footwear). Ingrown toenails are...
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Healthy toes are straight, evenly spaced, and free of the many problems that plague so many people in shod, or shoe-wearing, populations. Most conventional footwear, including running shoes, possesses tapering toe boxes that force the toes into a wedge-like position. This design characteristic, along with heel elevation and toe spring, causes many foot problems and toe deformities over time. Unshod populations, or groups of people who go barefoot or wear...
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I first started experiencing ingrown toenails in high school, in the late ‘70s, when I wore narrow toe box cleats a lot. My brother passed along some advice from his orthopedic surgeon: File the surface of the nail in the middle, basically making it flat. He said that it makes the nail grow toward the filed area, thus retracting the outer edges. From then on, I’ve incorporated it into my nail trimming routine and it’s worked quite well. Once I started going mostly barefoot about five years ago, I found that I now don’t really need to file the nail surface.
Hi, Kelly,
Thank you for sharing your experience with ingrown toenails! The advice from your brother’s orthopedic surgeon sounds like a helpful technique. It’s great to hear that going barefoot has alleviated the need for extra filing. Wearing tapering toe box footwear often contributes to ingrown nails, so allowing your toes to spread out naturally is a great way to support healthy nail growth.
All the best,
Marty Hughes, DC