You can stop most ingrown toenails at home by soaking the foot, gently lifting the nail edge away from the skin, and keeping pressure off the toe. Caught early, before infection sets in, an ingrown toenail typically resolves within a week or two with consistent daily care. Here’s exactly what to do and when home treatment isn’t enough.
Why Toenails Grow Into the Skin
An ingrown toenail happens when the edge or corner of the nail curves downward and digs into the soft skin alongside it. The big toe is almost always the one affected. The most common cause is trimming nails too short or rounding the corners, which encourages the nail to grow into the skin fold as it lengthens. Tight shoes that squeeze the toes together are the other major culprit: a narrow toe box presses the skin against the nail edge with every step, gradually forcing the nail inward.
Stubbing your toe, dropping something on it, or repetitive impact from running can also trigger one. Some people are simply more prone because their nails naturally curve more than average.
Soak the Foot Daily
Warm water soaks soften the nail and the surrounding skin, making the nail easier to work with and reducing swelling. Add a couple of teaspoons of Epsom salt to a basin of warm water and soak the affected foot for 20 to 30 minutes. You can do this multiple times a day if the pain is significant. Pat the toe completely dry afterward, since a damp environment encourages bacterial growth.
Plain warm water works too, but the magnesium in Epsom salt helps draw fluid out of swollen tissue, which eases pressure around the nail edge.
Lift the Nail With a Cotton Wick
This is the single most effective home technique for redirecting the nail’s growth. Pull the cotton off the end of a cotton swab and roll it into a small, thin cylinder. After soaking (when the skin is softest), gently lift the edge of the ingrown nail and slide that cotton wick underneath it. Leave it in place.
The cotton holds the nail slightly above the skin fold, preventing it from digging deeper and giving the nail room to grow outward instead of inward. Replace the wick each morning, ideally after a shower. According to podiatrists at the University of Utah, doing this consistently for about a week is usually enough for the nail to grow past the point where it was embedded.
If you can’t get cotton underneath the nail because the skin is too swollen or painful, stick with soaking for a day or two first to bring the inflammation down before trying again.
Reduce Pain and Swelling
Over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen help with both pain and inflammation. You can also apply antibiotic ointment to the area and cover it with a small bandage to protect against infection while the nail grows out.
Ingrown toenail relief kits sold in pharmacies typically contain a gel with sodium sulfide, which chemically softens the nail plate so it’s less rigid and easier to lift. These can be useful if your nail is particularly thick or curved, but they’re a supplement to the cotton wick technique, not a replacement for it.
Wear the Right Shoes
While you’re treating an ingrown toenail, footwear matters more than you might expect. Tight shoes press the nail back into the skin and undo the progress you’ve made with soaking and lifting. Switch to shoes with a wide toe box that give your toes room to spread. Open-toed sandals are ideal during treatment if your environment allows it.
Socks matter too. Thin, tight socks create the same compressive effect as narrow shoes. Choose socks with some stretch and avoid any that bunch up around the toes.
Signs You Need Professional Treatment
Home treatment works well for mild cases, but an infected ingrown toenail needs medical attention. The warning signs are: pus or drainage from the nail fold, redness that’s spreading beyond the immediate area of the nail, increasing pain rather than improving pain, or warmth and swelling that keeps getting worse over several days. A fever alongside any of these symptoms means the infection may be moving deeper.
If you have diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, or any condition that reduces blood flow to your feet, skip home treatment entirely. Reduced sensation means you may not feel how severe the problem is, and poor circulation slows healing dramatically. Even small foot wounds in people with diabetes can escalate to serious infections. The American Diabetes Association notes that untreated cuts and sores on the feet can lead to infections severe enough to require amputation in extreme cases.
What Happens at a Podiatrist’s Office
For recurring ingrown toenails or cases that don’t respond to home care, a podiatrist can perform a partial nail removal. After numbing the toe with a local anesthetic, the doctor removes the strip of nail that’s digging into the skin. The procedure itself takes only a few minutes and the pain relief is almost immediate once the embedded edge is gone.
If the same nail keeps growing in repeatedly, the doctor can treat the root of that nail strip with a chemical that prevents it from regrowing. This is called a matrixectomy. It permanently narrows the nail by a few millimeters so the problematic edge never returns.
Recovery from a partial nail removal takes six to eight weeks. A full nail removal, which is less common, takes eight to ten weeks to heal. During recovery, you’ll need to keep the area clean, change bandages regularly, and wear open or loose-fitting shoes.
How to Prevent Ingrown Toenails
The most important prevention habit is cutting your toenails straight across, not curved along the shape of your toe. The American Academy of Dermatology specifically recommends this technique to reduce ingrown nail risk. Use a proper toenail clipper rather than scissors, and don’t cut them too short. The nail should be roughly even with the tip of your toe. File any sharp corners with an emery board rather than clipping them off at an angle.
Beyond trimming, choose shoes with a wide toe box for daily wear and especially for exercise. Running shoes that are too narrow are a frequent cause of ingrown toenails in athletes. When buying shoes, shop later in the day when your feet are slightly swollen to get a more accurate fit. You should be able to wiggle all your toes freely inside the shoe.
If you’re prone to ingrown nails despite good trimming habits, the shape of your nail plate may be the issue. In that case, a one-time matrixectomy on the problematic edge is a permanent fix that eliminates the cycle of repeated ingrown toenails.