The truthful and most likely answer is NO!
Overly aggressive grooming of the nails, especially with non-sterilized instruments, can cause infections (bacterial, viral and fungal), damage to the integrity of the nail plate and even changing the growth pattern of the nail plate.
Frequently, we hear stories of very talented pedicurists who assist folks with ingrown toenails with frequent debridements. This can go on for years until the nail becomes progressively involuted and ingrown and can no longer be managed conservatively.
Todays case is just such a story.
The cause of the curvature and subsequent ingrowth, we’ve written about this many times before (read detailed explanation here). Suffice for now that we’ll accept it’s caused by an abnormal gait pattern, primarily due to inherited foot structure.
Our patient described this slow, progressively worsening situation, finally culminating in a full-blown ingrowth and bacterial infection. The likely final trigger was a recent first pregnancy, resulting in a temporary weight increase, but more importantly third third-trimester hormonal changes accelerating structural change in the feet.
Experience shows that the first pregnancy produces moderate changes, however, subsequent pregnancies can accelerate this exponentially. For this reason, we advocate good foot stability during pregnancy, especially in the third trimester and postpartum.
Barefoot and pregnant! may conceptually be a natural state. Our modern living environment offers very little in the way of natural environments for the normal foot. For those of us with less than ideal foot structures, we need all the advantages we can get, Parenthood is challenging enough.
Should your toenail graduate to this stage, never fear. We have a very simple, painless, tried-and-true surgical permanent fix. Once we get this done and all healed up, no one will ever know this new mom ever had a problem. We will be encouraging her to change her footwear and take better care of a couple of structural issues.
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