Black Toenails: How To Treat Them?
Black toenails are not uncommon. In some groups of people they are more frequent than in others and the situation is even familiar. This also leads to applying homemade solutions that are not always indicated.
One group of people who know black toenails firsthand are runners. In the sports practice of running, it is very common for dark coloration to appear on the nails.
Among the runners, the most affected are marathoners and mountain trail athletes . The former for the long distances they must travel and the latter for the uneven terrain in which they carry out their activity.
As we will see later, there is a risk factor among brokers. Both the repetition of the impacts and the irregularities of the ground that alter the footprint are the cause of the subungual hematoma.
Subungual hematoma is the technical name for black toenails in medicine. It is precisely a collection of blood that is located in the nail bed.
It is almost never a serious clinical condition. It is not even life-threatening when the cause is melanoma. However, if it is accompanied by severe pain it can be disabling to step.
Causes of black toenails
Black toenails are mainly caused by small repetitive trauma. But this is not the only cause. Let’s see below the most frequent situations that originate them.
Ongoing trauma
This is the main cause. If our toes are repeatedly traumatized, with a constant rhythm for a long time, then the subungual hematoma may appear. This is the reason for its prevalence among runners. The tapping of the toe against the inside of the shoe is the explanation.
A slight, small, painless hematoma or a large bruise with disabling pain may result. In severe cases, blood overflows the nail bed and exits under the nail.
It does not always happen, but it can be accompanied by infection in the skin around the nail. The signs are the inflammation and the red coloration that the nail surroundings take on.
A curious and striking fact, which is the cause of subungual hematoma due to trauma, is overlapping fingers. In people who have raised fingers from birth, friction is capable of leading to the production of the black nail.
Accident
Unlike the continuous trauma, the accident is a unique and punctual event. For example, the fall of a blunt object on the foot. If the fall hits a nail it can break the blood vessels causing the bruise.
Mushrooms
The most common fungal infection of the feet is the well-known athlete’s foot. Although its presentation area is classically between the fingers, it can extend to the nails. In addition to changing the color of the nail towards green and yellow tones, fungi sometimes give black color. This can be due to the manufacture of a hematoma or a mere change in pigmentation.
Cancer
The most serious and dangerous form of black toenails is subungual melanoma. It is a variety of skin cancer that grows in the nail bed.
Of the total number of melanomas suffered by humans, the subungual variety is approximately 5%. More than half of those that appear on the hand are located on the thumb, and nearly nine out of ten of those that appear on the foot are on the first toe as well.
How to treat black toenails
The treatment of black toenails ranges from simple forms to more complex variants. As we have already mentioned, it is common for runners to use home-made approach methods to drain the blood under the nail.
And is that when the subungual hematoma clearly comes from a trauma, the indication is drainage. If the blood protrudes beyond the limits of the nail, what is done is a puncture to give the blood an escape route.
If there is no access through the skin, the drainage must be through the nail . The hard part of the nail would have to be pierced to create the escape route. It is no longer so possible to do it at home and you have to turn to doctors or podiatrists.
In case of not practicing a drainage, the hematoma will continue its course, the nail will detach by pressure and it will be lost. Instead a new nail will start to grow to replace it. It is not dangerous for that to happen, only that it will take months to complete the process.
For fungal infections, antifungal agents are chosen. Athlete’s foot creams do not penetrate the nail, so lacquer presentations are preferred. If that first line fails, the next option is oral medication.
Lastly, when faced with a subungual melanoma, the treatment is surgery. The entire nail must be removed and the tumor removed with the margins free to ensure healing. Of course, it is a practice that can only be done by a surgeon and by no means be practiced at home.
