Do not despair if your toes look dirty because of ugly fungal growth affecting it. Believe it or not, toenail fungus is quite a common sight in a lot of feet and though not mostly uncomfortable, it is sort of gross to look at, and is not exactly something that says much about your personal hygiene. Also called onychomycosis’, this is caused because some sort of virus or bacteria, or mold latches to the nail bed and begins breeding steadily. This happens in places which is warm and moist, and a hotbed for the emergence of several kinds of these bacteria. You would notice that given time, the growth of these unsavory aliens would increase, and can cause you undue pain and a lot of unnecessary grief which can be easily avoided if you take a few precautions.
So how do you get rid of them? Well, for one, you can try several different methods which have proven to be effective against this particular nastiness, and they are not very difficult to follow. Often enough the process of removal is pretty long term, so a lot of times you might get frustrated. But keep at it, and you would see positive results.
- Diagnose the problem correctly and do not assume, go to a doctor and find out whether you are truly affected by this. A lot of things can go wrong over one small assumption, so get the affected area checked before you take this thing further.
- Use Lamicil creams on them only if it is prescribed by your doctor. Plenty of problems have occurred because the wrong products were used to treat these kinds of problems.
- Watch out for Mother Nature’s cures. You would be surprised to see how effective things like tea tree oil, oregano oil, or products like Leucatin are. Use them on thoroughly dried toenails. It might take a bit of time, but you would be able to see the difference.
- Use nail polish on dried toenails to seal in the fungus, and cutting off their oxygen supply. You can also use Vick’s Vaporub, which has produced surprising results, again, on thoroughly dry toenails.
- Mix together equal parts of regular white vinegar with Listerine mouthwash, and submerge the affected nails in the solution for about a quarter of an hour every morning and evening. You can use the solution to up to a week and you would see the difference yourself in a few days.
- Sulfur powder, which is available at many medicine shops and can be sold over the counter without prescriptions, help immensely in cleaning up nasty fungal infection. You can dust your foot morning and nights with it, or according to your needs.
Overall, keep your feet clean and dry, and keep the nail short. Let the affected nail grow out so that you can cut and get rid of it. If possible, keep your doctor aware of your condition, and you would see your problem would be over soon.
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