Home Remedy for Ingrown Toenails
 By Rob Hardwicke, President and Product Master

Ingrown toenails occur when a corner of your toenail grows into the skin next to your nail. If you've ever had one, you know they can be really painful and get badly inflamed. They're also VERY common. In fact, without ingrown toenails, most podiatrists would go out of business. They can also become serious. Some ingrown toenails even get so bad that abscesses form and you need surgery.

Hopefully you haven't gotten to the point where your ingrown nail is infected, and you can follow this easy home remedy for ingrown toenails right now. But look - if your toe IS infected, you should definitely see a doctor. This article is not meant to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Just use your common sense, okay? Okay.

So, the first thing you do is soak your foot (the one with the ingrown toenail) in some nice warm water. You can add Epsom Salts, but you'll get far better results if you use high-quality Dead Sea bath salts. And while you're at it, you can soak BOTH feet. It sure feels good and it'll help soften up those calluses!

Now, once your skin and nail are nice and soft, gently lift up the corner of the nail that's digging into your skin, using a pair of tweezers or a nail file. This part is a little tricky and sometimes a little scary (because those babies HURT!). But hang in there... You lift up the nail, and then sort of wedge a little bit of rolled up cotton in there. The idea is to get the nail clear of your skin, so it can grow past it and back out into nail land. After you get the cotton in there, apply some Dead Sea mineral foot balm to the affected area, which will speed healing and help to prevent infection. Awakening FEET also contains peppermint oil, which is cooling and can help to soothe the painful area.

Sadly, your nails don't grow very fast (probably a good thing in most situations - could you imagine having to clip your nails twice a day? No thanks.). So you're going to have to repeat this process several times over the next week or two. Again, if you think you might have an infection, go see a podiatrist - ingrown toenails can turn into real medical problem if not treated properly.

To wrap up, there's one foolproof way to never have to deal with ingrown toenails in the first place (and avoid that nasty foot surgery). It's so simple it should be illegal: instead of trying to clip your toenails into a lovely circular shape so they can be admired by your socks, just cut your toenails square across the top. Kinda like a flattop for your nails. That way, there's no excess nail that can grow into the skin to the side of it, and no chance of ever getting an ingrown toenail.

Happy clipping!