Toenail Pain [Toenail Fungus, Ingrown Toenails, Discolored Toenails]
Toe Nail Coming Off the Nail Bed [Causes, Remedies & Best Treatment!]
Do you have a big toenail coming off the nail bed? 95% of the time, it is either due to trauma (which could be repeated rubbing!) or even toenail fungus!
Look:
- The toenail falling off pain can be improved with a few simple treatment changes.
- We are foot doctors & we see this problem get better almost every day.
- The goal is to solve this problem without medication or surgery if at all possible.
So, let’s GO!
Table of Contents
Toenail detached from nail bed treatment video:
Toenail separating from the nail bed causes:
Red or Black Toenail Picture & Photo Gallery:
Look:
- A red toenail generally means fresh blood or a fresh injury.
- This can be called a toenail hematoma or fresh blood from repetitive irritation.
- A black toenail is generally more dried blood that has crested underneath the toenail.
- Very infrequently, can a black toenail be something more dangerous like melanoma?
- It is also possible for your toenail to the infected with toenail fungus. This can also then result in rubbing and bleeding after the toenail fungus.
- If there is toenail fungus, this is usually more of a brown or yellow color.
- A toenail falling off is a widespread problem as well.
Please click on the photo gallery for descriptions & full-size photos!
Please click on the photo gallery for descriptions & full size photos!
Toe Nail Coming Off the Nail Bed Overview:
- The 95% most common causes of the big toenail coming off the nail bed are a traumatic injury, light rubbing of the toenail.
- This can occur within your shoe that you never even noticed, a very severe fungal infection, or in some cases, we may never know the reason it fell off.
Will the Toenail loose toenail grow back?
- The nail will almost always grow back, and you shouldn’t get too worried
- Follow the guide below, and you should be in great shape!
Why is the Toenail Black?
- The nail usually appears discolored because it fills up with blood underneath the nail as it separates from the skin underneath it.
- Once the separation has begun, it is a normal process, and at this point, there are a few things that you can do to limit more pain or injury.
The Most Common Causes:
1) Trauma is the number one cause of nail loss:
First, confirm that you have experienced trauma. This is usually pretty evident because you stubbed your toe hard or dropped something really heavy onto your toe.
You will experience the following symptoms:
- Pain.
- Bleeding under the nail bed leading to red streaks or discoloration under the nail.
- Eventual loosening of the nail from the nail bed as the blood fills under the nail, and you can evaluate the damage.
2) Repeated Light Rubbing:
Symptoms:
- This usually means your shoes are too tight.
- Very common in people who are on their feet all day.
- Pain isn’t always there!
- If you spend the majority of your time on your feet and you think it may have been possible that your toenail has been pressuring up against the front of your shoe, then this is highly possible.
- This results in blistering under the toenail leading to the detachment of the nail- with or without pain!
Most likely to get it:
- People who are buying new shoes.
- Tight shoes on the forefoot.
- New exercise routine.
- Training for a marathon.
- New exercise class.
- If you are going from little exercise to a great deal of exercise.
3) Fungal Infection Causing Separation:
The nails would have been thick, hard, and discolored yellow or orange for a period of time before the nail separated. This is a very common and treatable cause of nail separation.
Recommended Products For Toenail Fungus On a Loose Toenail:
- Just remember that the key to healing a loose toenail is first to trim it and cut it off properly!
- If you don’t trim and cut out the loose dead portion, you won’t succeed no matter what.
- Once you can trim and remove the dead, dry skin around the toenail, consider foot soaks and applying anti-fungal solutions.
These are our recommended choices for toenail repair!
Home Treatment:
The priority in this situation is to accept that the nail has been lost and that you will need to wait until you can grow out a new nail.
Step 1) Acceptance!
- Accept that the nail is gone, and you will have to wait for it to grow back 1 millimeter per month or so.
- This means 6-9 months if the entire toenail has fallen off (the fingernails grow back a little bit faster).
- Unfortunately, there is not too much that can be done to speed up the growth of the nail beyond leading a healthy lifestyle and getting lots of exercise and sun(basically anything that boosts your metabolism).
Step 2) Treat The Pain:
- If the toe is really painful – apply ice for 15-20 mins until it starts to get numb. The faster you decrease the swelling over the first couple of days, the faster the toenail can begin to grow.
- Take some anti-inflammatory medication like ibuprofen or aspirin to prevent long-lasting pain. Initially elevate the foot to decrease the pain as well. Once the pain is low enough, you will be able to start trimming the nail down.
Step 3) Trim The Nail:
- The detached toenail from the nail bed should be trimmed back as far as it is still attached. The danger here is that it will bend back and rip out with the tissue attached to it if you hit the nail again.
- OUCH! Avoid this serious and painful complication by trimming back early.
- If you cannot get all the blood underneath the nail out and it is not painful, it is ok to let it just grow out over the next 6-9 months.
- But if it is excruciating over a while, then you should go to the podiatrist to get the blood drained(pain is due to pressure under the nail).
Step 4) Smooth The Nail:
- Use a nail file, emery board, or pumice stone to smooth out the remainder of the nail after being trimmed back so that it doesn’t get caught on your socks.
Step 5)Prevent Infection:
- Apply some antibiotic ointment- Neosporin and triple antibiotic ointment work very well here. Use some water to wash out the bloody area, apply the antibiotic ointment, and then cover it with a band-aid.
- Suppose the toe is getting red hot and swollen.
- In that case, you experience nausea, fever, or redness moving up the toe or throbbing pain that lasts past the icing, anti-inflammatory medication, and elevation, then you likely have an infection.
- Get yourself to a podiatrist or an emergency room as soon as possible.
Step 6) Compression and Protection:
- If you continue running or working on that foot, put some heavy-duty duct tape or athletic tape over the band-aid.
- If your feet are in danger at work, wear steel-toe boots.
- If you are exercising heavily, get fitted for some better shoes.
Step 7) Wait for the Toenail to Grow Back:
- Unless you damaged the nail matrix(the base of the nail), then it should grow back every time. The long-term problem may be that the nail does not look exactly as it once did. It may curve more or be thicker- it is essentially a scar of the nail bed. There are ways to treat it at this point. Check out our guide on how to handle long nails.
Home Prevention Products:
- Treat your fungal nails or joggers toe as outlined above.
- Get fit for your proper shoe size.
- Trim your toenails straight across.
- Get proper socks.
- Use athletic tape or duct tape to cover the nail.
- These are our favorite products to treat toenail fungus at home.
- Make sure you read the reviews and see if it is good for you!
How to fix toenail fungus:
- There are many different types of toenail damage.
- In our experience, about 90% or more is related to toenail fungus.
- The key to toenail fungus is to trim it as much as possible and file that nailed down.
- These products are not meant to replace prescription drugs or medical treatment equipment.
- If you can do that, you have to make sure you can kill fungus the rest of the way.
- The best way to do that is to soak exfoliate the affected toenail skin. So, consider foot soaks.
- At the same time, you have to apply antifungal medication such as these medications recommended here or the toenail repair pens.
Best Toenail Fungus Clippers & Files:
- These are some great value heavy-duty clippers and sets. You have to be careful using at home, and deftly don’t use these if you have dangerous health conditions.
- The key is to cut straight across and file the nail down from the top to keep it from impinging in the corners.
- It is also essential to make sure all dead, dry skin is removed surrounding the foot.
- This is where you should see your podiatrist if you have any concerns or are worried about cutting or hurting yourself.
- This is something covered, so don’t take chances with your health!
Best Antifungal Moisture Wicking Socks:
- These are some great options for moisture-wicking sucks.
- We tried to focus on budget value stocks that are not too expensive.
- Sure there are better stocks out there, but these are great socks for a great price for most people.
- If you have diabetes, focus on getting yourself some diabetic socks.
Best woman’s antifungal socks:
Best men’s antifungal socks:
Recommended foot fungus products:
- It is also essential to fix your foot fungus.
- Even if you cure your toenail fungus, keep your toenails trimmed in healthy: your foot fungus can spread back into toenails.
- It’s not a far journey from skin fungus to jump onto your toenails again.
- So make sure you treat your foot fungus, as well as your toenail fungus.
Get The Best Shoes:
- You want to get great shoes and sandals for your toenail fungus and foot fungus.
- Specifically, when you are in a communal shower or pool, you want to get a good pair of sandals. We compiled a great list of our recommended orthotic flip-flops.
- You also want to get new breathable shoes that are not covered in sweat and mesh around the toes.
- Specifically, good pairs of running shoes have a mesh where your toes are.
- This prevents your toenails from rubbing and prevents them from dreaming on the front of the foot.
- Click on the below link to see which shoes we recommend for your toenail fungus and foot fungus.
Other Related Nail Problems:
What is onycholysis?
See if any of these other problems apply to your situation!
- Toenail Fungus
- Very Long Toenails
- Ingrown Toenail
- Toenail Falling Off
- Black Streaks Under The Nails
- White Patches On Toenails
- Black Spot Under The Toenail
- Red Spot Under The Toenail
- Toenail Coming Off The Nail Bed
- Toenail Psoriasis
Consider Athlete’s Foot Treatment:
- Athlete’s feet can cause toenails and foot fungus.
- One important thing to keep in mind is that toenail fungus will have a hard time getting better if you still having foot fungus all over your foot and ankle.
Athlete’s Foot Treatment:
Other services our podiatrists provide:
- Toenail Fungus Treatment (Oral or Laser ).
- Toenail Trimming.
- Orthotics Fitting.
- Ingrown Toenails.
- Infected Ingrown Toenails.
- Podiatrist pedicure or medical pedicure.
- Trimming of Corns, Trimming of Calluses, and Treatment of Pressure Blisters.
- Diabetic Foot Care & Diabetic Foot Wounds.
- Athletes Foot, Dry Skin, Eczema.
- Foot & Ankle Ulcer Care.
- Infection and Abscess Care.
- Staph Infections in the Toe or Foot Treatment.
- Treatment of Plantar Warts for Your Toes and Feet.
- Foot & Ankle Injections (Steroid or Natural Solutions.)
- Management of Foot & Ankle Fractures (Walking Boots for broken toes or broken feet).
- Heel Pain (Heel Spur or Plantar Fasciitis).
- Custom Orthotics for children and adults (In the office).
- Over the Counter Orthotics for children and adults.
- Podiatrist medical pedicure.
- Extra-Depth Shoes for Patients with Diabetes.
- Diabetic Shoes.
- Gout Treatment.
- Prescription (Refills).
- Telehealth appointments.
- Shockwave therapy (AKA ESWT or EPAT therapy)
- Cold laser therapy (In the office).
- MLS laser therapy (Multi-Wave Locked System laser therapy).
- Laser for peripheral neuropathy (In-Office).
- Senior Toenail Cutting & Toenail Trimming Services.
Other in-office surgeries our podiatrists perform:
We can perform toenail, toe, foot, heel & ankle surgery in the office!
We can help with:
- Minimally invasive foot surgery.
- Minimally invasive bunion surgery.
- Minimally invasive hammertoe surgery.
- Corn and callus removal surgery.
- Plantar wart removal surgery.
- In-office permanent ingrown toenail removal surgery.
- Removal of unwanted spurs, bumps, or lumps on your feet.
- Shockwave therapy (AKA ESWT therapy or EPAT therapy)
- Cold laser therapy.
- MLS laser therapy (Multi-Wave Locked System laser therapy).
- Laser for peripheral neuropathy.
- 3D custom orthotic scan.
Toenail Pain [Toenail Fungus, Ingrown Toenails, Discolored Toenails]