Medical Questions » Nails Questions » Question No. 710
| Question: | My toenails are thick, brown, scaly and ugly. I can' t wear sandals or thongs, or go barefoot without people looking at me and feeling revolted. What can I do? |
| Answer: | Onychogryphosis. Try saying it three times quickly! This is the medical term used ro describe your condition. It may be caused by a chronic fungal infecrion, poor circulation, tight shoes, injury, old age, psoriasis and numerous less common conditions.
Treatment used to be extraordinarily difficult and involved prolonged and often ineffective medical treatment, or removal of nails, which often grew back just as badly deformed as before. Now we have some very effective medication that can cure the problem in three months, but only if it can be proved to be caused by a fungal infecrion.
Cio to your general practitioner and s/he will take clippings and scrapings from your affected nails and have them tested to see if a particular fungus is present. If the test is positive, a tablet called Lamisil can be prescribed to be taken for three months. This has a 90%+ cure rate, but the tablets are extremely expensive, and the government will only subsidise the prescription under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme if the presence of a fungal infection is proved.
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