Treatment of nail fungus takes at least six months and is subject to correctly prescribed therapy. Many people, especially on the eve of summer, are concerned about the question: how quickly will their nails return to their previous healthy appearance? What will they look like immediately after starting treatment? And in a month or two?
Furthermore, whether or not the treatment is effective can also be determined by the appearance of the nails. Let's look at what you need to pay attention to in the appearance of your nails after fungus treatment.
Why is nail fungus difficult to treat?
Onychomycosis (fungal infection of the nail plate) is very difficult to treat in everyone. There are three reasons for this:
The microbe enters the nail bed and not all local medicines can reach it. Additionally, most fungi provide "protection" in the form of thickening of the nail plate.
In most cases, onychomycosis is accompanied by a fungal infection of the foot. And as soon as a person heals their nails, the fungus re-enters the nail bed from the skin of the foot.
Reinfection also occurs through socks, shoes and also in the bath/shower.
Classic types of treatment for onychomycosis
Currently, medicine uses three main approaches to treating nail fungus:
Systemic medications in the form of tablets or capsules. They can help, but for this they need to be carried out over a long course - from 4 to 18 months. All of these medications are toxic to the liver; Taking them can be complicated by the development of diarrhea, skin rashes and changes in taste. Therefore, during treatment it is necessary to strictly follow a therapeutic diet, stop drinking alcohol and periodically take blood tests - "liver tests".
Local remedies (creams, varnishes). They do not always penetrate the nail plate well. Therefore, it must be prepared in advance: cut off the overgrown masses from the nail with a clipper or remove them with a clipper. You can't do it alone: you could damage the cells that give rise to the nail plate.
Combined therapy: simultaneous administration of a systemic medication and application of a local antifungal agent to the affected nail. It is used in severe cases to slightly minimize the severity of side effects from systemic medications. The effectiveness of this treatment is also not very high.
In some cases, dermatologists remove the affected nail plate before prescribing topical treatment. Now they are trying to do this less and less, limiting themselves to just filing the affected area - to avoid infection of the nail bed with bacteria.
It seems that onychomycosis can go untreated, but it actually represents something more than an aesthetic defect. It can cause a serious mixed infection (fungal and bacterial) of the foot or hand, which can even cause gangrene.
What do your nails look like after fungus treatment?
In the first 2-3 months from the start of using local medications, the nail plate will still not noticeably change. The fungi remaining in the subungual space continue to multiply and thickening or, conversely, thinning forms again on the nail. The growth plate retains its pathological color for some time: yellow, milky white, black or brown. It may still be scaly, ribbed, or curved. There may be chips in it or an area where it pulls away from the bed.
When treated with tablets, pathological changes in the growing nail plate can be observed for less than two months. So, after treating the fungus, the area of the nail closest to the hole should look healthy:
- become smooth;
- change color to pinkish or reddish, uniform in color;
- acquire normal thickness.
If the nail grows back after removing the entire nail plate, it has the right to become a little thinner. This is also an indicator of your health.
If, despite treatment, after 2-3 months the nails remain altered in color, thickness or smoothness, then the therapy should be reviewed.
How quickly the entire nail will become healthy
It depends on the growth rate of the nail plates. It is influenced by:
- age: the younger the person, the higher the speed;
- nature of nutrition: insufficient intake of vitamins and microelements reduces the rate of nail growth;
- Room temperature: in hot climates, nails grow faster;
- frequency of nail injuries: they slow down the growth of the plaque;
- hormonal status: for example, during pregnancy, the rate of plaque growth increases;
- the presence of common chronic diseases: they slow down nail growth;
- taking medications that affect the rate of cell division.
On average, a healthy nail after fungus treatment on the hands grows in 6 months, and on the feet in 12 to 18 months. Thumb and toe nails grow more slowly than others. Therefore, if the nail plates of 2 to 5 fingers of the lower extremities grow at a speed of 1 mm/month, then on the first finger this speed is up to 0. 7 mm/month.
How can you speed up the treatment of onychomycosis?
To make your nails grow faster after fungus treatment, you can use laser therapy. It involves treating the nail plate with a neodymium laser device with a wavelength of 1064 nm. Its radiation freely penetrates the nail bed and heats the fungal cells to high temperatures, resulting in their death. Additionally, the heat from the laser activates blood circulation in the nail bed, which accelerates the growth of a healthy nail plate.
The laser is used in conjunction with local therapy. After a laser treatment session, the patient should apply the recommended cream or varnish to the nails, as well as carefully treat the shoes with an antiseptic to avoid reinfection.
The effectiveness of treating onychomycosis with a neodymium laser has been tested in several foreign multicenter studies. It is an excellent complement to local treatment, has a short procedure duration and is not accompanied by side effects.
Therefore, a healthy nail plate should begin to grow within the first few months from the start of treatment. It may be a little thinner than normal, but it has an even pink color and smoothness. The treatment process is significantly accelerated when the affected plaques are treated with a neodymium laser.