How to treat paronychia

Paronychia is a common disease in daily life. The most obvious symptom of paronychia is redness and swelling of the toes, accompanied by pain. Severe paronychia will still affect our normal work and life. Paronychia needs to be treated actively, otherwise it is easy to aggravate the condition. If the treatment is not timely, it will also lead to abscesses in paronychia. How to treat paronychia?

How to treat paronychia?

Paronychia is a relatively common disease that mainly occurs on the feet and hands. It is mainly caused by pulling out thorns or accidentally puncturing them. Patients with paronychia can feel obvious pain. But if not treated in time, the wound will continue to fester. Therefore, when the symptoms are still relatively mild, you must go to the hospital for treatment in time to avoid missing the best treatment time.

Paronychia usually starts on one side of the nail and then spreads to the other side. The wound will become red, swollen and abscessed. There may be local redness and swelling. If these symptoms occur, be sure to go to the hospital for treatment. To diagnose paronychia, the doctor can directly diagnose paronychia. If you want to be more careful, you can go to the hospital for a white blood cell test. If the white blood cell count is higher than normal, then it can be confirmed to be paronychia. Paronychia has a great impact on the patient's life and will affect the patient's normal life. At the same time, because paronychia can be diagnosed relatively intuitively, many people go to the hospital for treatment in a timely manner. There was no secondary infection of the wound.

Currently, the better method for treating paronychia is drug therapy. The doctor will prescribe appropriate medicines for your treatment, usually some antibiotic-based medicines, which are very helpful in treating wound infections. The treatment cycle is generally about three weeks. Your paronychia should be cured in about three weeks. There are also some people whose paronychia can heal itself, but the possibility of spontaneous healing is not high. There is also supportive therapy, which works faster and can heal in about a week. Therefore, many patients prefer this treatment option.

If you think you have paronychia, you should first maintain a positive attitude, cooperate with the doctor's treatment in a timely manner, and go to the hospital for treatment as soon as possible to avoid suppuration of the wound. Once the wound begins to fester, it means that the bacterial infection has worsened. This has an adverse effect on your physical health. At the same time, you should pay more attention to your diet, eat light food and avoid spicy food. At the same time, pay attention to protecting the wound, cleaning the wound in time to prevent the wound from being infected by bacteria.

What causes paronychia?

This has to start with the structure of the nail. The nail is composed of five main structures: nail matrix, nail plate, nail bed, nail epithelium and nail folds (see the figure below). The nail epithelium lies between the skin and the nail plate, fusing the two together. This structure provides a closed compartment that prevents the entry of foreign irritants, allergens and pathogens. If the nail epithelium and nail folds are damaged directly or indirectly, these injuries will destroy the relatively closed nail structure, allowing pathogens to enter, causing infection of the nail folds and periungual tissues of the finger/toe, leading to paronychia. The most common pathogen is Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris can also cause paronychia. In cases of chronic paronychia and recurrent paronychia, the possibility of fungal infection should also be considered. For patients who like to bite their nails, anaerobic bacteria in the mouth may also be pathogens.

Many injuries are very common in daily life. We don’t take some very minor injuries seriously or even notice them, such as washing dishes, minor puncture wounds, hangnails from biting or pulling nails, sucking and biting nails, excessive manicures, etc. Xiao Gao's illness was caused by ingrown toenails due to excessive toenail trimming, and the inflammation caused by pressure from walking for a long time.