What Causes Yellow Toenail Fungus? How to Get Rid of It?

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Bad fungus infection in the toenails is a common problem that affects a large number of athletes and other common people every year in the US.

Fungal toenail infections are generally caused by different types of fungal organisms (commonly by dermatophyte).

In addition to fungi, yeast and molds can also be a cause of nail infections.

Although it can develop at any age, it’s more common in old aged people.  

Among the several types of ugly toenail fungus, Onychomycosis is the most common one.

Once you are affected by it, chances are high that you may experience various types of symptoms that include thickened nails, painful nails, discoloration, bad odor, distorted nail shape, and many more.

What Causes Toenail Fungus

The fact is if you neglect it for a long time, chances are high that you may have to bear a painful experience for a long.

Well, if you are suffering from any such problem, it’s essential to know what are the real causes and what can be done to get rid of the problem.

Since there are several home remedies and treatments that you can go for to get rid of this fungus infection, you must understand what works and what does not.

Here in this article, I will be discussing more of them…

What Causes Toenail Fungus?

Usually, toenail fungus occurs due to microscopic organisms that develop in damp locations.

Since your feet remain in shoes and socks for a long time, constantly dampened with sweat, they prove to be the right breeding place for these fungal organisms.

And this is why yellow toenail fungus is often seen in athletes and sports persons who sweat a lot and neglect proper cleaning of their feet.  

The problem is also common among the swimmers and athletes that share communal showers.

This means you can get affected by this problem due to locations such as a locker room, swimming pools, etc.

Bad toenail fungus is also a contagious and chronic problem for diabetic people.

What to Do When You Have Fungus on Your Toenails?

It looks like; every one of us has some wise advice to provide tips about how to get rid of a toenail fungus.

If you think that you are affected by bad toenail fungus, you should consult a physician as soon as possible.

Treatment of fungal toenails involves medications and helps to remove the affected nail. In fact, in most cases, treating a nail fungus starts with antifungal medicines.

Therefore, any delay and negligence on your part can increase the problem to a great extent.

If the infection is not severe and has just started, there are a few ways to make the process of getting rid of the nail (finger) fungus easier.

Some of them are:

1- Foot hygiene

Proper foot hygiene, along with wearing properly fitting footwear, is one of the best ways to stop the problem.

At times ill-fitting footwear or unclean toenails also give birth to certain infections. Thus, keeping the toenails trimmed and footwear intact is advisable to allow proper air passage.

2- Epsom salt

Some other ways to eliminate this trouble include dipping and soaking of foot in warm water consisting of Epsom salt.

After the foot is soaked, the affected area can be rubbed in order to turn the skin harder to avoid further infection development.

After drying the foot, one can apply anti-bacterial cream to maintain the hygiene level of the skin.

3- Using a bandage

Another method of protecting the toenail fungus or infection or irregular development is to use a bandage around the toe.

The pain killer cream can also be applied over the affected part in order to combat the mild infection which would have recently taken place.

4- Antifungal medications

Physicians usually rely on antifungal gels, creams, and nail polish, to treat mild and moderate infections.

This even offers positive results to fight against the infection from returning back. If you are suffering from a hard-to-treat fungal toenail infection, antifungal pills offer amazing results.

There is hardly any medicine that can cure the bad toenail fungus better than oral antifungal pills.

In some severe cases, it requires removing the nail. However, this is done only in some rare cases. It is worth mentioning in this context that the removal of nails can be done with or without surgery.

Such tablets or pills can cause some side effects that include headaches, itching, nausea, and many more.

5- Toenail surgery

In case of severe ingrown toenail troubles, home remedies fail to treat the patient.

The intense toenail fungus and other troubles that are associated with an ingrown nail can be cured by getting the nail of the two removed with the help of ingrown toenail surgery.

The surgical methods of curing the ingrown nail trouble comprise removing the nail partially or wholly.

The nail is either removed by numbing the foot and removing the nail with the help of scissors or by using laser surgical methods.

Laser surgical methods of curing any sort of foot problem are splendid.

Such surgical methods are capable of curing hereditary foot trouble called club foot.

The severe pain which results because of the uneven development of foot bones can be remedied by using laser surgical methods.

The bottom line

Well, toenail fungus could be quite painful and troublesome for people of any age.

In worse cases, it can be contagious and may affect other nails, too, which can lead to bad looks on the nails and even other infectious diseases.

All the choices mentioned by experts can have side effects as nothing is flawless.

So, choose any particular treatment and stick to it for a few days. Hopefully, with time it will definitely show its positive impact.

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