How to Prevent & Treat Black Toenail | Foot Care

-
-

What is a black toenail? A black toenail is a common injury in which blood gets beneath your toenail. It can be caused from repetitive trauma or an acute trauma.

One of the ways to prevent it is wearing protective shoe gear. If you work in an environment that's dangerous, wear a protective Class 75 safety shoe. It prevents injury to your toes. Make sure that you have adequate toe box in the shoe. Make sure the height of the shoe is adequate for your toes. You don't want it to be rubbing all day.

If you're a runner, this is a common injury. Repetitive trauma to the nail while running is a common cause of blue toenail or black toenail syndrome.

If you get a black toenail and it's greater than 25 percent of your nail, see a podiatrist immediately. There's a simple procedure we can do, where we just use a cautery unit and invert a hole through the nail, relieving the pressure. It will relieve your pain, and it may actually save your toenail.

If you have an acute injury and your toenail is actively bleeding, go to the nearest emergency room or the nearest podiatrist and have it examined. You may have a laceration of your nail bed that will need to be repaired. If the nail is damaged to such an extent, you may also have a fracture of the toe, which would also need to be treated.

I do not recommend heating a paperclip up and burning through your nail yourself. I do not recommend using a drill bit and drilling through the nail yourself. This can cause serious damage and infection to your toe.

If you get a black toenail and you can get to a podiatrist office or emergency room within 24 to 48 hours, and you can have the blood successfully drained, you may be able to keep your toenail. Unfortunately, what usually happens when you get a black toenail is that you will eventually lose your toenail. The thing that is unknown is how will the nail grow back in.

The nail may grow back in thickened and discolored, or the nail may actually come back in with a fungal infection. These are both common occurrences.

[RickyXV]

Mine has been black for a 1 week. It doesn't hurt or anything, just black. The guy gave me a good idea about the paper clip....

[kiraamvs]

Yeah. My toes are getting like that because of football....

[tala]

I had a black toenail but i didnt do anything to it.. i just waited until my nail grew and eventually the blood stuck to the nail and grew with it until i was able to easily clip it

[pipiripaosolis]

Ding it! I guess i’ll put my drill away! 😪

[bandu]

My toenails of both feet turned blue after a long trek in tight shoes. There was no pain the next day onwards. Gradually it turned black and after 3 4 months it started peeling off and new nail came up for toes. Both were of normal pinkish colour.

[rururi]

It's so relatable I have a little bit but I think it can be cause by tight shoes so the shoes are pressing the nail which I think stops the blood flow in order to make it black, not that sure

[thatshot]

This is at the moment happening to my finger. The doctor drained the blood by making a hole but now my finger is turning black around my nail. My nail is also still black but I’m worried about why it’s black around my nail.

[SanjeevAgrawal]

I started running 5 days back since then my toe nail getting blue day by day and it is also paining...what should I do??

[soniahmath]

i am scared to death, this video, i thought would help me, instead it scared the shit outta me! i dunno what to do now!

[ahmedalabed]

I had this and just left it and it got better

[fanniepigeon]

Less than 25% of my toenail is black (it's my right foot and the part that's black is the bottom left-side). What should I do?
I play badminton and I think it happened mainly because I keep stubbing it since I don't land properly.

[ponycorn]

I was watching YouTube videos and I dropped my iPad on my toe and now it's bruised 😂

[johnnguyen]

I am in karate and I was sparring today, apparently my friend hit my toe as soon as I kicked and it hurts, its been hurting real bad. :(

[gttrevino]

I've had mine for a while I'm afraid if I go to a doctor they will rip it off

[ariioke]

I wore tight shoes as a kid and it turned black and I’m scared they may not turn back to white or grow back. What should I do?

[rareperson]

thank you for the information. i got booth my big toe totally black after walking in new shoes one day, that was odd (since i don't know why, maybe due to extremely low iron deficiency?, blood transfusion level), now two months later its getting back better 60% (and i haven't done anything abt it), but they haven't grown any, and the nails got a bit deformed, i haven't seen a dr (i though they will be okay eventually). aren't there any chance they will start grow(?), and be like it they was before(?)

[nusa]

im a ballerina and during a summer intensive my toenail turned violet/black because my foot is slipping in the pointe shoe😂 en pointe i dance about three hours per day and i really dont know what to do. it doesent hurt but i hate to look at it. help?

[allenjeffrey]

I lost my nail today but the reason to lose it started a month before where I left it untreated and it was a clear red .😢.I ignored it Now i have to wait a whole year for a new one to grow.

[captainsaucypants]

I've had a black nail from acute trauma, hurt like hell. White stuff was oozing from it as well as blood, and a lot. After a few days it started to kinda come off, let me tell you how fast i ripped toenail off my foot. BIGGEST mistake! bled even more, and it was painful. And thank god it came back like it was before the accident because i basically ripped it off and now that i look at it im pretty sure i wasn't supposed to do that.

[nomvuyisongamlana]

That Is how I feel right now 😔😔and it is so painful 😢