Onychomycosis is a disease in which a fungal infection affects the surface of the nail plate. There are 3 types of pathogens that are most often detected in tests: yeast fungi, molds, dermatophytes.
Why does the fungus appear?
The fungus itself cannot appear. The disease is always preceded by certain push factors, such as:
- Use of household items with fungal spores. If one family member has onychomycosis and others wear your towel, slippers, or socks, the risk of infection is quite high.
- Visiting public places with a large flow of people. Saunas, baths, swimming pools, solariums, showers, gyms, beaches - all these places can become a place of infection with onychomycosis.
- Constant high temperature and humidity in shoes. The fungal infection often reaches office workers and military personnel, who are forced to wear shoes all day. Shortness of breath, compressed space, and uncomfortable shoe styles lead to increased sweating, blood stasis, and as a result, onychomycosis.
- Reduced immunity. If the immune defense is weakened by the disease, after taking antibiotics and other reasons, onychomycosis may appear.
- Age of the person. In children, the fungus does not appear due to physiological characteristics: the infectious pathogen takes a certain time to take hold and multiply. And children's nails grow very fast, so onychomycosis does not have time to develop. It often affects adults and almost always the elderly and elderly. Your nail plates grow very slowly and therefore it is especially difficult to remove senile nail fungus.
How to understand that the nails are affected by mycosis?
When the nail plate changes in any way, this indicates possible problems. The signs of onychomycosis will be the following conditions:
- cracks between the fingers;
- yellowing of the nail plate;
- thickening of the skin;
- separation of the nail without mechanical reasons;
- burning and itching;
- inflamed nail fold;
- Thinning or thickening of the nail.
A healthy nail should be pink, shiny and smooth.
Quick and effective methods for treating fungus at home
The fight against onychomycosis usually lasts at least a month. The sooner you start treatment, the faster you will get rid of the disease. You can turn to traditional medicine or use pharmaceutical preparations. But it is better to combine time-tested advice and effective medications; This will allow you to quickly forget about the fungus.
Preparing the nail plate for treatment
Often, a simple application of antifungal medications does not produce the desired result. This happens because medicinal substances cannot penetrate inside through the thickened nail due to the fungus.
Before starting treatment, the nail plate affected by onychomycosis should be removed. There are several ways to do this:
- Steam your feet with hot water. It is important to keep the water temperature quite high (up to 50 degrees) for about half an hour. To do this, you can pour dry mustard into the water and constantly add new portions of hot liquid. Next, you need to cut the overgrown part of the steamed nail plate and reduce the thickness of the nail with a low abrasive file (100-150 grit).
- Buy antifungal cream paste at the pharmacy. This tool is from the budget segment, but its action can replace surgical or laser nail removal. The paste contains urea, which softens the nail plate without pain or discomfort, after which it is cut or removed with a scraper. The drug is applied to clean, dry nails affected by onychomycosis, and a patch is pasted on top in a crosswise fashion. It is important not to remove it for about 2 days. With an advanced stage of the fungus, several of these procedures may be necessary.
- Use antifungal cream. The main component is urea or urea. On steamed, but towel-dried nails, you need to apply cream, seal with a plaster and do not remove for 3-4 days. Then make a hot bath again, remove the softened fragments.
Without removing the nail or its fragment affected by onychomycosis, it is useless to treat it.
Steam baths
High temperatures and water soften the nail plate. It becomes easier to manipulate and, if necessary, remove diseased fragments. Before any medical procedure, you should steam your legs well. You can do it in the following ways:
- Stir 4 tablespoons of iodized salt, 200 g of baking soda, and a few drops of lavender essential oil in hot water. Lower your legs and hold until cool. Then wash and dry with a clean towel.
- Finely grate a piece of tar soap. Add 3 tablespoons of the resulting "powder", a glass of baking soda to a bowl of hot water, steam your legs for 10-20 minutes. It is good to use such a bath in preparation before the next treatment procedure.
Cleaning products
When compressing or applying ointment is not possible for a long time, cleaning a sore nail will help. Onychomycosis requires constant and complex treatment, so sometimes you can use folk recipes:
- Soak a cotton ball in apple cider vinegar, generously lubricate diseased nails. The fungus loves an alkaline environment, so its oxidation will inhibit infection.
- Mix 2 tablespoons of calendula and lilac flowers, pour a glass of vodka, let it brew for at least a week. Apply to sore nails three times a day.
Wrap and compress
Compresses have a good effect on the health of the nail, eliminate the infectious agent.
- Pour celandine oil on a cotton ball. Put on the infected nail, bandage lightly, put socks on top and walk all day. After that, you can treat the plate with hydrogen peroxide or iodine.
- Grate a few cloves of garlic on a fine grater, add 1 teaspoon of any vegetable oil. Apply the resulting gruel to the diseased nail plates, make a bandage on top and put on your socks. Let it act for a few hours. If there is a burning sensation, remove the compress, wash your feet with tar soap.
Creams, pharmaceutical solutions
Antifungal drugs are effective against fungal infections. Often in the product line of one manufacturer there are both liquid forms of products, and several creams with the same active substance in the composition.
Tablets and capsules for oral administration
Treatment of a fungus is sometimes impossible without exposure "from within". Taking antifungals speeds recovery.
How to treat advanced toenail fungus
If onychomycosis starts, home remedies become ineffective. In this case, you will definitely need a consultation with a mycologist or at least a dermatologist. Most likely, it will prescribe the following procedures:
- Identification of the pathogen. Usually a scraping of the plate is taken, less often - a fragment of the nail. These materials are sent for microscopic examination.
- Taking medications. After determining the parasitic fungus, internal antifungals and topical preparations are prescribed.
- Removal of the affected part of the nail or the entire plate. If the onychomycosis affects less than half of your area, a medical pedicure is prescribed. If the entire nail plate has become infected, it may need to be surgically removed.
Iodine treatment methods
The causative agent of onychomycosis feeds on keratin in the epidermis. The damaging effect of iodine for the fungus is that it binds this protein and the infection dies. Repeated application of iodine to the affected area also practically cauterizes the parasitic pathogen. The drug has an antiseptic effect, which prevents the infection from developing again.
Iodine is a powerful medicine. It can only be applied to the affected nail fragments. Contact with healthy skin can cause inflammation and severe burns.
In the advanced stage of onychomycosis, iodine can help as an additive in steam baths. Pour all the preparation from the bottle into hot water, lower the legs for 20-30 minutes. A pronounced antiseptic effect will be exerted not only on the nails, but also on the skin, where there may also be spores of the causative agent of infection. After the procedure, you can treat your feet with hydrogen peroxide.
In the initial stage, you need to apply iodine to the nail plate with a cotton swab every few days. When after about a week the area below the affected area starts to burn, this will be a good result, indicating a successful treatment.
For a simultaneous antifungal and care effect, you can add 3 drops of iodine to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat this mixture in a water bath, apply it to sore nails, and put clean socks on top. Leave overnight, wash your feet with soap and water in the morning.
Iodine is one of the most economical and highly efficient pharmaceutical products. Its continued use is possible throughout the month. In the absence of results, you need to change the type of therapy or consult a doctor.
Onychomycosis is successfully treated with complex systemic and local therapy. The combination of pharmaceuticals and home remedies will allow you to defeat a yeast infection in a period of 1 month.