How to Remove Dead Toenails: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

September 28, 2017

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The problem of the dead toenail is quite common and almost all the people suffer from the problem of loosening of dead toenail at some point of time in their lives. It has also been found that the most of the people don’t have any idea on how to remove the dead toenail. Although some of the people try various ways to remove the dead toenail, it may cause a lot of pain and suffering.

Here, we have tried to provide detailed information about the problem of dead toenail along with its causes as well as symptoms. Read on to know more about the effective ways to treat the problem of the dead toenail and removing it quite painlessly. But first, it is also important to know what dead toenail actually mean?

In this Article

What is Dead Toenail?

Dead toenail, basically, are the blisters, which causes due to various types of fungal infections. Some of the main causes of the dead toenail include wearing tight shoes or the development of blisters under the nail. Sometimes, trauma to the toe or subungual hematoma can cause the problem of a toenail.

Dead toenail can cause moderate to severe pain and can prove to be a headache. It is important to recognize the cause of the dead toenail as early as possible so that accurate treatment can be provided in the case along with removing the toenail. Toenail removal also helps in preventing infection and helps in healing any underlying nail injury.

After providing the proper treatment, the toenail can grow again after a period of 6-12 months. Taking help from the expert medical professional is also recommended for the complete care of the problem.

What are the Causes of Dead Toenails?

As mentioned earlier, it is important to recognize the dead toenail causes as early as possible for the proper treatment. For your help, some of the major causes of dead toenail have been listed here.

1. Wearing Wrong Size Footwear

Wearing shoes, which are wrong in size can cause your nail to become black. The main reason behind it is the pressure, which is applied on the nail due to the wrong size and stops the growth of the toenail turning its colour to dark.

2. Sporting Activities

If you often engage in sporting activities, which requires a lot of activity by your legs as well as feet such as running, playing soccer, it is important to note that you are at high risk of causing dead toenail. This also occurs due to putting pressure on your toenails repeatedly, which turns the colour of the toenails to black.

3. Trauma

Sometimes, accidents to the toenails due to banging against the table or door or wall or any other hard surface along with falling of heavy object on your toenail can turn it dead and may cause a lot of health problems.

4. Fungal Infection in Nail

Development of fungal infection under your nail has a tendency to erupt with the time, which makes the separation of the nail from the nail severely painful. It is important to provide effective treatment to the fungal infection as soon as possible otherwise the infection can be spread to the new nail, which will grow there and cause the ingrown toenail problem.

5. Blisters

The development of blisters can take place under the nail bed, which causes the peeling of the nail from the skin. In this condition, you need to provide treatment to the blisters first before applying the ways to remove the dead toenail.

What are Symptoms of Dead Toenail?

Here, find out some of the major dead toenail symptoms have been listed here. Check out these symptoms, which can prove helpful in providing effective treatment to the problem of the dead toenail.

Even though in the problem of the dead toenail, the affected toenail becomes darkened, initially the toenail will first become reddish, brownish or purplish. Darkened or blackened toenails means the toenail is completely dead due to some malfunction in the area. However, it is not always possible that the toenail always becomes black and sometimes the original colour of the toenail remains the same.
You may also experience the moderate to severe pain in case you face the trauma or pain. The pain, however, can go away after several days or weeks.
Sometimes, you may also feel some kind of discharge coming from underneath the affected toenail along with pain. This may also adjoin with bad odor. It is important to immediately examine the condition by the doctor as it should be treated as early as possible to prevent it from further worsening or spreading.