Question:  What is Toenail Fungus?

Answer: Toenail fungus is an infection that gets in through cracks in your nails or cuts in your skin causing nails to change color or thicken, in some cases causing pain.
Fungus thrives in warm and damp environments, toes often prove the perfect environment for fungus to grow. Different types of fungus as well as yeast form and affect different parts of the nail.
Left untreated, an infection could spread to other toenails, skin, or even your fingernails.

Because toes are often warm and damp, fungus grows well there. Different kinds of fungi and sometimes yeast affect different parts of the nail.

Left untreated, an infection could spread to other toenails, skin, or even your fingernails.

Question: What are the Symptoms?

Answer: Infected nails are usually thicker than normal and could be warped or oddly shaped. They may have a yellow discoloration or become brittle.
Sometimes a white dot shows up on the nail and grows over time. When fungus builds up under your nail, it can loosen and even separate the nail from the skin.
In some cases, the fungus may also spread to the surrounding skin.

Question: Who Gets Toenail Fungus?

Answer: Men and older people are more prone to develop foot fungus.
People who have diabetes, athlete’s foot, or a weak immune system, who smoke, or whose family members have it are also at a higher risk.
If you spend a lot of time in the water or you’ve injured your toenail, your chances of getting toe fungus increase.

Question: Is Nail fungus a dangerous disease?

Answer: Fungal nail infections usually are not dangerous in the short term. In fact, the main problem is mostly physical appearance- aesthetic.

In the long run, for some people the fungus may spread and appear on the feet, hands and eventually cause a bacterial infection of the skin.

Question: What can be done to reduce nail fungus infection?

Answer: It is almost impossible to prevent nail fungus infection but you can follow the following tips: use soap and water to wash your feet, and dry well, including between toes.
Trim your toenails – straight across – to keep them shorter than the end of your toe. Make sure the tools you use are clean, too.
Wash clippers and files with soap and water, then wipe with rubbing alcohol. You might be tempted to cover up discolored nails with polish, but don’t.
Your nail bed can’t “breathe,” which keeps fungus from going away.