An ingrown toenail can be a harmless injury from stubbing your toe,  but can easily turn into a medical problem if it begins to show symptoms of infection. An infection may develop from ignoring the ingrown until it gets worse, infections caused by fungi, and the conditions of your shoewear.  Infections are also more bound to occur if you are a diabetic, or immunocompromised by some other condition. 

Symptoms of an ingrown toenail infection include:

• Redness or swelling
• Bleeding 
• Infection in the skin, where the skin does not look normal (i.e: swollen, tender, or hard)
• Pus or drainage coming from toe 
• A fungus infection where toenail has abnormal texture and harder and thicker than your natural nail 

Once you see that your toe might be infected the next step is to seek help from a doctor or podiatrist to avoid further complications, and so you can continue doing your everyday tasks, and to stop the pain. Click here to schedule a free consultation with one of your doctors.