A bacterial infection, treatable with antibiotics.One study compared patients with ingrown toenails to healthy controls and found no difference in the shape of toenails between those of patients and of the control group. The study suggested that treatment should not be based on the correction of a non-existent nail deformity. In some cases, however, there is nail deformity.Ingrown toenails are caused by weight-bearing (activities such as walking, running, etc.) in patients that have too much soft skin tissue on the sides of their nail. Weight bearing causes this excessive amount of skin to bulge up along the sides of the nail. The pressure on the skin around the nail results in the tissue being damaged, resulting in swelling, redness and infection. Many treatments are directed at the nail itself and often include partial or full removal of the healthy nail. However, failure to treat the cutaneous condition can result in a return of the ingrowth and a deformity or mutilation of the nail. Prevention
The most common digit to become ingrown is the big toe, but ingrowth can occur on any nail. Ingrown nails can be avoided by cutting nails straight across; not along a curve, not too short and no shorter than the flesh around it. Footwear that is too small or too narrow, or with too shallow a "toe box", will exacerbate any underlying problem with a toenail. Sharp square corners may be uncomfortable and cause snagging on socks.
An ingrown nail, also known as onychocryptosis from Greek: ὄνυξ (onyx) nail and κρυπτός (kryptos) hidden, is a common form of nail disease. It is an often painful condition in which the nail grows so that it cuts into one or both sides of the paronychium or nail bed. While ingrown nails can occur in the nails of both the hands and the feet, they occur most commonly with the toenails (as opposed to fingernails), and for the most part are only problematic and painful on the big toe. A common conception is that the nail enters into the paronychium, but an "ingrown toenail" can simply be overgrown toe skin. The condition starts first from a microbial inflammation of the paronychium, and then a granuloma, which results in a nail buried inside of the granuloma. A true ingrown toenail is caused by actual penetration of flesh by a sliver of toenail. Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of an ingrown nail include pain along the margins of the nail (caused by hypergranulation that occurs around the aforementioned margins), worsening of pain when wearing tight footwear, and sensitivity to pressure of any kind, even the weight of bedsheets. Bumping of an affected toe can produce sharp and even excruciating pain as the tissue is punctured further by the nail. By the very nature of the condition, ingrown nails become easily infected unless special care is taken early to treat the condition by keeping the area clean.