How To Get Rid Of Yellow Toenails

Hello, I am Charles Goldman, a qualified chiropodist podiatrist. I run The Foot Pad chiropody and physical therapy clinic in Holborn, Central London. Today, I am going to talk to you about various foot problems and their treatment.

We are now going to talk about treatment of yellow toe nails. Yellow toenails can simply be the lack of oxygen and sunlight often in women from wearing too much nail varnish. If it is just slightly faded, then exposing the nails to light and air can cure this problem and it will grow out.

If, however, the yellowing is caused by a fungal infection, this is far more difficult to treat. Although it is not life threatening and it does not hurt, it develops very quickly and people can often ignore it because it does not hurt. If you suspect a toenail infection, it is best to get professional help who can confirm diagnosis by taking a nail clipping and sending it to a lab where they will culture it and they even identify the particular fungus.

If this is confirmed and you want to treat it, there are several ways you can treat it. There are drugs you can take, although I personally don't recommend them. But they are not a hundred percent effective and some of them do have terrible side effects.

They can cause liver or kidney damage. The other treatments you can use are using topical preparations. These also are very ineffective because they don't penetrate the nail, whether they are lacquers or creams or oils, the nail is quite impervious.

If the fungal infection has spread quite down the nail, there is no chance of curing it that way. One is very superficial, just one or two millimeters down the nails, sometimes liquids can penetrate underneath the nail where the fungus grows and kill it. The other treatments we use, personally, I use something called a bio gun which bombards the fungus with ions which penetrate the nail and actually destroy the fungus directly.

This also is not a hundred percent effective but it is far more effective than the other treatments. We also use laser which is not proven method but it is an intense light and fungus does not like it light. It grows in dark, damp conditions.

The first things you have to do to prevent infection. Fungal nail infections very often follow on the bout of athlete's foot. So the first thing to do is eliminate the athletes foot and keep your feet dry and exposed to light as much as possible and this is the way we would treat yellow nails. .