UKC

I've been to a podiatrist twice to have an ingrown toenail cut out. She's now recommending that surgery would solve the problem once and for all. Having spoken to someone whose had this done several times (he was not a climber) it didn't seem to entirely stop the nail growing back again in the offending area. I was wondering whether continued use of performance climbing shoes will merely bring the same problem back again afterwards despite going for surgery and being out for a few months during the best climbing weather. f you'd had the surgery performed what is your take on this? Did it cure the problem or did the continuing growth and pain come gnawing back even after surgery? Thanks for any useful feedback.

I had my big toe nails removed two years ago, with a liberal dose of Phenol to kill the nail beds.  However both toe nails have now grown back!  The new toe nails are not pretty but they are not as distorted or painful as before on the brief occasions I've been able to wear rock shoes during lockdown. Hopefully this will remain the case and I'll be able to have a good summer's climbing.

I had a partial nail avulsion over 20 years ago. No more ingrown toe nail, no pain and no problem with rock shoes. Takes a week or two to heal completely afterwards, but was totally worth it for me. 

My OH had partial avulsion of an ingrowing toenail a few years ago.  His toenails still look cacky (he has manky feet generally - don't get me started) but they no longer cause pain - despite wearing rockshoes a LOT.

Likewise, 2 partial avulsions about 30 years ago, the nails grew back a bit but in such a way that they've never caused me any problems.

Hi in my youth I had the partial job done with the phenol but kept coming back. When I was about 19 I had a recurrence but toe was in a bad way infected etc. So I had entire nail bed taken out. So I have no nail. This has always been fine climbing and running and all my mates have enjoyed seeing my freak toe through the years. I have absolutely no regrets having it removed especially when I remember how painful climbing shoes were before. 

To add this was full on surgery, not the phenol stuff. general anaesthetic and nail cells scraped out and toe sewn back up.

Hi

I had my nail bed removed about 40 years ago due to ingrown toenail.

I now have bits of nail growing doesn't look that good but as long as I keep it tidy doesn’t give me any grief. Asked a few years back about having it re done but no guarantee could be given no nail would grow back.....

I used to suffer from ingrown toenails a lot during my teens. Can't remember how I learnt it, but when you trim your nails, instead of cutting them straight, cut them into a slight 'V' shape (so a bit shorter in the middle, longer on the sides). Looks a bit weird but it solved the problem for me completely, I've not had another ingrown toenail in the 20 years I've been doing this. No issues with tight climbing shoes either.

I have suffered from this myself several times. My personal theory which does work for me (and I realize is contrary to advice) is cutting straight is not good for climbing shoes. I cut a rounded shape and cut them quite short, but I am super careful to file the whole nail around, especially on the big toes. Its the sharp edges after cutting that allow the nail to pierce the skin

Surgery is not guaranteed to fix it according to a doctor friend. I've learnt to trim the offending part of the nail which I've done for the last thirty years or so.

I've tried all the usual tactics with nail care; straight trimming, V notches etc and regular meticulous care to no avail and its always a distracting pain while climbing. The visits to the podiatrist have provided a real relief each time, but with risk of infection every time a good side chunk is professionally cut away it's not a long term solution, hence the recommendation of surgery. It sounds like all things considered it would be worth a shot, especially if available on the NHS. Thanks for the background info UKC guru's.

I used to manage similar with regular trips to the podiatrist but it got worse when I started climbing so then he said it would be better to sort the problem once and for all and remove a strip of nail each side of each big toenail.

He was a private podiatrist (struggled to get it dealt with on NHS here) and the deal was if the edges grew back he would remove them again for free.

I think this meant he made damn sure they didn't grow back and used lots of phenol - certainly the reaction to it went on forever and I was dressing and cleaning them for around six weeks after. They've not yet grown back though, about three years later. Even with the extended aftercare time it was worth it.

I had my big right toe stamped on whilst dancing during our wedding.  On Honeymoon in Istanbul this area swelled up (hot country, lots of days walking on touristy trips) and turned purple and started to ooze puss.  I had suffered from in-growing toenails regularly previously and kept having them trimmed.  A waste of time.  At the "American Histanesi"  I was seen by Dr. Ahmed "the Butcher" who I had seen whilst waiting yelling at patients and causing children to cry and scream in abject fear.  He spoke no English, and I had no idea what was going to happen.  Without much preamble he started by scraping my toe bone with the needle of the local anesthetic syringe, then merrily chopped a slice down the side of my toe off including cuticle and nail bed.  Four stitches later I was introduced to an English speaking nurse who translated that I was not to walk on it for a month. This was day 4 of a month's Honeymoon! 

"Unfortunately" this meant lots of lying down :-D

I have never had a problem since.  A biopsy removing a slice down the edge of the toe sounds terrible, but it has worked and no more problems.  That was 30 years ago.

The "shave biopsy" in this image:
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/nailbiopsy-150508121255-lva1-app6892/95/nai...