Dangers of Over Clipping Toe Nails

Cutting your toe nails is important for many reasons. It keeps your feet looking more attractive, it lessens the chances of bacteria and dirt getting caught underneath, and it means you toenails are less likely to catch on things and tear or break. However like almost anything it is still possible to have too much of a good thing, and over cutting your toe nails can cause a range of problems.

Among these problems is the fact that you will expose the sensitive flesh beneath the toenail. This flesh will not be used to being exposed and will be soft and raw as a result. At the same time though that part of the toe has an extraordinary number of nerve endings in it which will make it far more sensitive to pain. This means your toe will be exposed to injury, but it will also hurt when you put your socks on and when you walk around. This after all was the purpose of the toenail to begin with.

Of course the risk that will first come into most people’s minds is that of ingrown toenails. These are nails that have, through being poorly cut, begun to grow into the skin of the toe. This is a highly painful process and one that can be enough to prevent a patient from walking. At the same time, the sharp nail constantly pushing into the skin will leave it with a constant open wound that is also susceptible to infection. Should you get an ingrown toenail you will need to get medical help and they will perform surgery to remove it.

To avoid ingrown toenails you should not only be sure to avoid cutting your nails too short, but should also try to ensure you cut the toenails straight across rather than in too rounded or too jagged a pattern. If you do find that part of your nail is jutting out at an awkward angle, then you should just ensure to keep pushing the skin down to try and avoid the nail growing into it. Once it gets long enough you can then cut it. Meanwhile treat the area with antiseptic to prevent it becoming infected.

To ensure you cut your nails correctly you can use clippers as opposed to scissors which makes it harder to accidentally cut too far. At the same time you should aim to cut only the white part of the nail that extends past the nail bed and not the more pink-coloured nail below it.

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  1. So about two days ago, I cut my toenails super short because I hadn’t cut them in a while, and I used clippers (I’m pretty sure I cut them straight across, but I also cut somewhat diagonally at the edges of each nail to get it as short as I could, so I don’t know if that affected anything), but I also filed the nails down A LOT. Like there is no white part of the toenail left. I thought cutting them really short would make them really nice and clean and be much more nice-looking, and they do look much cleaner and shorter, but at the same time, they are red around some of the edges. And I know there is the raw skin that was under the toenail and stuff could be the redness, and that might be the case of all this and this is all normal and I should just wait, but it hurts when I put pressure on my left foot’s inner toes if that makes sense? Like the toes that aren’t your big toe or pinky toe, those three toes. But that might just be because I’ve stubbed those toes in that area in the past few days so that’s probably it, plus the toes are much more sensitive and raw after you cut them really short. Also, quite a few of my toes (on both feet, and not just the inner toes) have been bleeding a little bit. But it’s more like dry blood from when I cut then (I’m not the best with clippers, but nothing was really bad though, just little cuts), so that’s probably nothing. Also, I filed the actual like area of the nail, (like the big part, not just the part you clip) and so it’s thinner, so maybe that’s why it’s less protective and stuff. But yeah, I just wanted to know if everything’s alright and if this stuff was normal. Maybe I’m just being too worrisome. Sorry, this is quite long! But yeah, if you’re reading this, thank you for the time and if you know the answer I would really appreciate the help.

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