Key facts
- Other names
- Unguis incarnatus or Ingrown toenail
- Specialty
- Orthopedics
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
1,064 papers- Ingrown Toenail Management.American family physician · 2019
- Operative treatment of ingrown toenail by nail fold resection without matricectomy.Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association · 2015
- Retronychia.Anais brasileiros de dermatologia · 2018
- Ingrown toenails.Indian journal of dermatology, venereology and leprology · 2012
- Ingrown toenail removal.American family physician · 2002
via PubMed
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
An ingrown nail, also known as onychocryptosis (from Ancient Greek: ὄνυξ, romanized: ónux, lit. 'nail'; and κρυπτός, kruptós, '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 any nail can become ingrown, wearing shoes causes the toenails to grow in more often.
A common misconception is that the cause of an ingrown toenail is the nail growing into the paronychium, but it can also be caused by overgrown toe skin. The condition is caused by a microbial inflammation of the paronychium causing a granuloma within which the nail is buried. A true ingrown toenail is caused by actual penetration of flesh by a sliver of toenail.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “ingrown nail” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.