16 October 2011

When Toenails Fall Off


From Food to Feet, this is a post all about Toenails falling 
off. More specifically, my Toenail. Are you as excited as I am?


Before I reveal what is under the bandage, or not under the bandage, it would help 
to give you some background information on why my toenail fell off in the first place!


As shocking and freaky as it may seem, falling off of toenails, known as Onychoptosis, 
is quite a common condition. There are 2 main reasons for this: Fungus and
 Injury. In both cases, the nail initially changes colour before weakening and falling off


In this case, my nail colour is pink, but only because I clearly
 painted my toenails a week prior. Underneath the paint, the
 nail was bruised and slightly orange/brown in some regions


But I can assure you, this is not due to a fungus, but an injury to my big toe


Cause: Long walking in sneakers that were a bit too small 
for my feet as well as not consistently clipping my toenails


When you run, jog, walk or play sports wearing tight shoes, your toenails repeatedly hit 
the top edges of the shoes. This makes sense why many athletes are prone to toenail
 and foot injuries. Such injuries, either causing bruising or bleeding, can damage the 
nail. Over time, the nail weakens and begins to detach from the toe, eventually falling off 


The surface underneath is not as soft as you'd expect it to be. There was already a 
new nail forming and growing underneath which I could feel closer to the cuticle


And it was virtually pain-free peeling the nail off since it was 
already 90% detached. The only pain came from that small patch of 
skin that was stuck to the toenail (evident in the pink flesh, upper left)


10 Tips to Prevent Your Toenails from Falling Off

1. Wear shoes made of breathable materials that offer stability, protection and balance
2. Use caution when performing in sports
3. Wear clean socks and shoes daily
4. Completely dry your feet after they have come into contact with water
5. Trim toenails straight across
6. If possible, wear shoes with steel toe boxes when working around heavy objects
7. Shoes should be ½ to 1 inch longer than the longest toe
8. Practice proper hygiene habits on a daily basis
9. Wear socks made of breathable materials
10. During the healing process, take extra care of your toenail


JASON Tea Tree Nail Saver made with 70% Organic Australian Tea 
Tree Oil is a great natural topical treatment to help protect the nails


Question: Have you ever lost a toenail or fingernail?

23 comments:

Cupcake Kat said... [reply]

I have had a toenail fall off. I was wearing my skates and needed to walk up some stairs, I then hit my toe on a step, bruised my toenail, and about a week later my toenail fell off.

Marianne (frenchfriestoflaxseeds) said... [reply]

Strangely, I have managed to never lose a toenail or fingernail. I've had some mighty awesome bruises and whatnot, but they have never fallen off. I guess I'm lucky :)

Lauren said... [reply]

I use the same stuff! Love it :)

Kara said... [reply]

Ouch, ouch, ouch! I'd probably pass out if my toenail fell off! That being said - I've never had it happen before. I've mangled a fingernail pretty good, but it never fell off completely.

I hope your toenail grows in quickly!

Anonymous said... [reply]

i've lost more toenails than i'd like to remember! back in the day, i danced ballet. as anyone could imagine, the pressure of dancing upon wooden blocks prompted havoc to my poor toes! i would pour hydrogen peroxide upon the open wounds and naked toes for cleaning! it burned like heck but always resolved the problem. now, almost 15 years later, i see a regular aesthetician and podiatrist who maintenance my feet, and the toenails no longer fall off. thank goodness! oh, and i wear peep toe heels whenever possible, even with yoga pants. that also helps. :) x

Anonymous said... [reply]

I lost one of my big toenails a few years ago thanks to moving gym equipment with no shoes on. Big mistake. I definitely would rather not go through it again!
I hope yours grows back quickly and that you don't have to deal with anymore lost toenails!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said... [reply]

Ouch!!!! Here's hoping that nail grows back in good time!

Jessica Skye Davies said... [reply]

This is quite relevant to me at the moment. I just lost mine this afternoon (same toe as yours, oddly.) It was from a ridiculously minor injury, i was out dancing one night this summer (early September, maybe?) and whoever i was dancing with at the moment missed their step and landed on my toe. My shoes were sandal style heels with no platform - sadly! I didn't think anything of it at the moment, just went on dancing. That next morning it was a liitle sore and kind of "weepy." It wasn't killing me either though and i pretty much ignored it. After a week or so it didn't bother me at all any more. I noticed a couple weeks afterward when i went to remove the nail polish that there was hematoma under the nail, but again, it didn't hurt and wasn't weeping/bleeding or anything. A few weeks ago, i noticed the nail was quite brittle and seemed like it was getting ready to come off before long.

And today it did. It's not at all painful, just... weird. I guess i'm glad winter's coming so i won't be wearing any open toes (it's not pretty to look at), but on the other hand, i have to wonder if i shouldn't be letting the healing nail bed "breathe" as much as possible too, when i'm not in winter boots.

Not sure what i should be doing for it, exactly, but loosely covering it with guaze or a band-aid when i have socks/shoes on or some place where it could pick up dust/debris/dirt seems advisable i would have to imagine.

Erica White said... [reply]

I can't imagine how painful that must be. Some podiatrists I talked to says the same advice. It's really important to wear comfortable and breathable shoes all the time.

meowmix said... [reply]

I loose my toenails all the time :P I hate it especially in flip flop season!

meowmix said... [reply]

I loose my toenails all the time :( I especially hate it during flip flop season :P

Unknown said... [reply]

my toenail fell off today, but its not fully off theres a tiny bit left to cover my cutical (thankfully) as there was no nail under the surface just very sensitive and sore skin and exposed cutical ! I stubbed my toe on holiday last week and it bled quite badly and with further examination i noticed the nail was loose and now a week later i'm nail-less :(

Unknown said... [reply]

Sometimes the cause of falling nails is nail fungus. There is a natural solution to this embarrassing problem, Zetaclear. http://fungi-nail.org

Unknown said... [reply]

Sometimes the cause of falling nails is nail fungus. There is a natural solution to this embarrassing problem, Zetaclear. http://fungi-nail.org

StrawberryAqua said... [reply]

I injured my left big toe in October by dancing in a shrunken leather character shoe. It has only started breaking away within the last few weeks. That's 5 months. Once I saw healthy nail start to replace to ugly, bruised stuff, I noticed that the whitish part looked like it was flaking off. But instead of losing outer layers, half the nail is unattached. I'm afraid to pull off the nail because how sensitive it might be afterward. Does not having the nail hurt?

john said... [reply]

There are notions that problems in fingernail fungus are caused by lack of personal hygiene, but in many cases people who experience recurrence of such bacterial infection actually have low immune system and abnormal PH levels of skin.Naturasil Natural Nail Fungus Treatment Review

Christine said... [reply]

I have just lost a big toe nail and it is regrowing nicely. I've been using tea tree oil on the bare toe after each bath time. Now I'm waiting on a fingernail to fall off after dropping a heavy piece of wood on it a while back - it is so much more painful than the toe and I keep it covered with a bandaid when working as I don't want the part of the nail that's loose to get caught on anything and get torn off

Master said... [reply]

17th October 2015, today.I couldnt help but see the date of your post.Accident, a bed fell on top of my right foot toenail.It immediately came off.Only a bit of skin hold the nail to the toe. Not much blood.I cleaned and deinfected it.Tomorrow I will look better to see what is there beneath. What am I going to do know?Of course wear sandals.And how long till I have a new nail? Help!

Unknown said... [reply]

Theres no any small nail on my big toe. I just peeled it off. Is it able to grow again? Ty 😊

Unknown said... [reply]

Theres no any small nail on my big toe. I just peeled it all off. Is it able to grow again ?

Unknown said... [reply]

Theres no any small nail on my big toe. I just peeled it off. Is it able to grow again? Ty 😊

Kelsey Ann said... [reply]

@MARIO JUANA

Absolutely it will grow back but just takes a couple months to fully do so. My toe nail is fully grown back and even tougher than before. Thankfully nails re-grow themselves eh!

Just tryna help said... [reply]

I had a little wart form under my big toe for awhile and didn't notice I thought my toe was just sore from sports months later I relwized something was growing I had to go to 3 diffrent doctors and it took months to resolve but I had finally got ride of the wart and my toe nail was almost gone I hated it sooo much and took forever to grow so I got acrylic on my toe nail. My natural toe nail had grew back thick not allowing the fake nail to lay on my skin causing it to bump into everything it fell off a month or two later I let it grow back a little and this time it grew back nice and not thick so I got acrylic aging (I guess I didn't learn the first time) and I had an accident and tripped and I can see that the toe nail is going to fall off.... and just an fwi if your interested in getting acrylic on your toe I got it on my other good toe so they would match and I haven't had a problem but that toe nail was a lot longer I don't think that acrylic on a very short nail is a good idea at all only mediums and longish toe nails. Also if your toe nail starts to grow back thick my doctor said to file the top of toe nail to thin it out. If you let it grow thick it'll grow funny more tilted in instead of up and down. Also I recommend putting castor oil on your toe while it's recovering. It just keeps the cuticle and nail bed healthy I use 'jamican magno and like black castor oil vitamins a&d$e' I also highly highly recommended wearing a band aid or something to put pressure over the nail bed because all the pressure can make your skin kinda go up so wen your nail grows back it gets stuck it has to grow over the skin.

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