General Nail Care
General Nail Care is suitable for people who have significantly progressed fungal nails infections where nails have become thickened and extremely hard to self-manage. General nail care is not a treatment for fungal nails.
What is involved with general nail care?
The clinicians at Foot Foundation are trained to care for your fungal nails. Fungal nail infections that have progressed significantly can become thickened and extremely hard to self-manage. We start by thinning your nails down with our specialist drill before trimming your nails and debriding any remaining fungal to ensure that your nails are looking as presentable as possible.
Who is general nail care suitable for?
We recommend general nail care throughout our topical, oral and laser treatment plan.
Some clients who prefer maintenance rather than treating their infection or who may not be suitable for more extensive treatment methods may wish to have regular appointments to have their toenails cut, thinned down and debrided.
This can help the nails look and feel better when walking or wearing open-toed footwear or shoes. Ongoing nail care can be as little or as much as you like.
How do I get diagnosed?
Your diagnosis takes place during a consultation with our Foot Foundation clinician. They will take a thorough medical history, consider your risk factors, complete a comprehensive physical examination and use a Diafactory fungal nail test to correctly diagnose your fungal infection. Diafactory fungal nail tests involve taking a clipping of your toenail, taking photos of your infected nails and measuring the line of fungal growth from the base of the nail so we can monitor your treatment over time.
Once a correct diagnosis has been made, your Foot Foundation clinician will discuss the most appropriate treatment protocol with you and answer any questions that you may have.
How often do I need to have my feet attended to?
If you are undertaking one of our other treatments, we recommend attending our clinic every 8-10 weeks over the course of 12 months to get the best outcome.
If you wish to choose to attend our clinic for general nail care only, you can attend as little or as often as you like. For thickened fungal nails that are difficult to cut, we recommend that you attend every 8-10 weeks. However, other clients may wish to attend less frequently or only attend when they are unable to self-manage their nails; this maybe once every 6 months or yearly.
Your clinician will recommend how often you should attend a general nail appointment during your initial consultation.
What are the disadvantages of only having general nail care aka not undergoing formal treatment?
Over time, an ignored infection will progress (slowly) but will become more difficult to treat as the infection progresses throughout the nail and nail bed.
More commonly, a progressed infection may lead to the nails becoming thicker making them difficult to cut, being painful to walk on or wear shoes.
Serious complications are rare and unlikely, however in certain high risk population groups (such as diabetes and immunocompromised clients), if an infection causes a break in the surrounding skin, this can lead to an entry point for bacteria, potentially leading to foot ulcers, osteomyelitis, cellulitis and gangrene.
