You can get a fungal nail infection from walking barefoot in public showers or pools or by sharing personal items, such as towels and nail clippers.
Fungal spores can live on all kinds of surfaces, including metal toenail clippers for months. When you cut your fungal nail with your clippers, you can easily transmit the fungi to your other toenails or reinfect yourself.
Sterilize nail clippers. Soak in 70% or 90% rubbing alcohol for 20 minutes. Use a Q-tip and throw away after each use.
Never share nail clippers, shoes, skates, towels, and other personal items. You can easily pick up a fungal infection by sharing a personal item. People also get athlete's foot and ringworm (a fungal infection on the skin) by sharing personal items.
Treatment usually begins with your dermatologist trimming your infected nail(s), cutting back each infected nail to the place where it attaches to your finger or toe. Your dermatologist may also scrape away debris under the nail. This helps get rid of some fungus.
Toenail fungus actually lives not only on the nail but also on the nailbed itself. If the toenail is removed, this exposes the nailbed so that topical medications can penetrate the nail bed as the nail is growing back, which may result in a better efficacy of topical nail medications.
If you do have a toenail fungus, your doctor will likely recommend one or more of the following treatment options: Trimming the Toenail Trimming the toenail is usually combined with medication, but having a podiatrist periodically trim the nail down is helpful and allows the medication to work better, says Sundling.
Yes, many types of toenail fungi, including tinea unguium, are quite contagious. You can spread the fungus to someone else through direct contact. You can also get toenail fungus by touching an infected surface.
Yes, toenail fungus is contagious. Typically toenail fungus spreads through: Direct contact with the infected person. Common household objects, such as towels or clothing.
To treat fungal nail infections from inside the body, you can take tablets that inhibit the growth of fungi or kill them. They are all prescription-only. Terbinafine and itraconazole are typically used for this purpose. Terbinafine is preferred if the nail fungus is caused by a skin fungus (dermatophyte).
The fastest way to eliminate the infection is through toenail laser treatment. Laser nail therapy specifically targets the microorganisms under your nail while leaving the keratin intact. In just a few treatments, the infection can be entirely eliminated.
Ioli, who is chief of the podiatry service at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, suggested that daily applications of Vicks VapoRub might be at least as effective as most of the topical treatments for toenail fungus that are available by prescription or over the counter.
Scrub your shower and disinfect it with a bleach-based cleanser, Andersen says. Spray your shoes with an antibacterial spray, especially if you've worn them without socks, and wash all socks in hot water with bleach to kill any fungi.
You'll know that the medication is working and the toenail fungus is dying when your toenail changes back to its natural color, decreases in thickness, shows healthy new growth, and you see a clear delineation between the infected part of the toenail and your new nail growth.
“Applying Vicks VapoRub to fungus-infected toenails can clear up the notoriously hard-to-treat condition. Michigan State University clinicians found that applying the product daily to the infected nail cleared the condition in 32 of 85 patients, though it took anywhere from 5 to 16 months…”
What causes nail fungus? Tiny, microscopic organisms called fungi (the plural of fungus) cause a fungal nail infection. Many people pick up the fungi when they have skin-to-skin contact with someone who has a fungal infection such as athlete's foot or ringworm on their hands.
Toenail fungus is contagious, and you can pick it up by walking barefoot in moist, warm environments like showers, saunas, or locker rooms.
It may be hard to imagine anything remedying the situation. Outright removing your toenails, however, is the absolute last resort option for treating toenail fungus, and only performed in very rare cases.
If toenail fungus is left untreated, it can spread to the surrounding skin on the foot, causing another condition known as athlete's foot. An athlete's foot is a condition resulting in itchy, red, and cracked skin, which can become very uncomfortable.
The best type of vinegar to treat toenail fungus is apple cider vinegar, a very acidic and strong solution that destroys toenail fungus at the source. To take full advantage of this, mix one cup of apple cider vinegar with at least 2 cups of water – this will dilute the vinegar so that it won't burn your skin.
Podiatrists will treat toenail fungus by using topical creams, removing part of the nail, and or using more modern methods like laser therapy to eliminate the infection.