Swollen toe nail bed.

Do you have deformed nails and swollen toe nail bed?

A swollen toe nail bed may result in deformation of nails. It may be sometimes very irritating and painful. The deformed toenail may be on a singe toe or on more than one.
What can be done about this?

What’s happening to deformed nail?

You may have chronically thick and swollen toenail bed (or if multiple nails swollen nail beds) that is forming a callus underneath it. Often the skin under the nail has become really thick and inflamed and is likely experiencing chronic trauma. This prevents the nail from growing in normally (think of it like a big callus under and around your nail) Either your nail was damaged somehow - or you have a rigid toe or something is compressing and causing pain in the nail which is constantly there (even if not overly painful). This leads to the skin under the nail swelling and the nail loosening away from the skin, the skin becomes like a callus and this allows fungus to get under there. This makes the skin under the nail stay thick and the nail doesn’t have a chance to grow back properly.
But there is a good news! Studies are now showing that if you can correct the cause of deformation than the nail should usually grow back normally!

What can be done in case of swollen toe nail bed

1. Correct the pain and chronic irritation - it can be several things - arthritis in the toe (jamming it against the shoe), a shorter leg (needing a harder push off), bad shoes (compressing the toe), previous injury that never healed (leading to a short or long toe or joint arthritis) -  anything that is causing your toe to constantly be irritated! This needs to be corrected in order to prevent toenail from being further callused under the nail.
2. The nail may have to be removed and allowed to regrow if it is separated at all from the skin underneath it (if it was firmly attached and the color was normal that means its properly attached to non-thick skin underneath it)
3. If there is fungus under the nail that needs to also be treated check this link for details.

For more details and solutions to this problem check this link!

So runners, always take care of your feet to get further and with more fun!