If you have white or yellow dots on the ends of your fingernails or thumb nails, it could be nail fungus or in medical language called onychomycosis. If the infection spreads, the nails may change color, thicken, and crumble at the edges.
Nail fungus usually infects nail-forming hard materials. This infection itself can spread throughout the nail, including the foundation, the plates, and the nail roots.
Recognize the Causes of Nail Fungus:
The cause of this nail disorder is a dermatophyte fungus. In addition, yeast (candida) is sometimes partly responsible for the occurrence of onychomycosis. When nail conditions are warm and moist, the mushrooms will gladly make your nails as their habitat.
Nail fungus often attacks the toe nail than the fingers. This is because the ordinary toe is in a condition that makes the fungus easy to grow, such as dark, warm, and damp.
In addition, the toes have less blood flow than the fingers. Thus, the immune system can not detect a problem and can not stop the infection that occurred in the area quickly.
Some of the actions that affect the ease of nail fungus affecting the toes are:
- Has damage to the skin or nails.
- Be in a humid environment.
- Wear shoes that make your feet feel hot and sweaty.
- Routine wearing cosmetics on fingernails or fingernails.
- Often nail-biting.
- Too often wash hands or touch with water for a long time. Have poor health or suffer from diabetes or psoriasis. Psoriasis itself is a disease characterized by skin cells growing too quickly to form spots on the surface of the skin is thick and reddish or white.
How To Treat It?
There are several ways you can do yourself at home to cope with nail fungus.
- Using antifungals
If white markings are visible on the nails, wash your nails and dry. Next, apply an antifungal ointment. If the leg is attacked, give the powder or antifungal spray and make sure the foot is always clean and dry.
- Wearing balm
Although no medical research has been proven, it is believed that balm can solve the problem of nail fungus, especially the VapoRub balm. But before you apply a daily balm using cotton on the affected nail, you should consult your doctor first.
- Cut and attenuate the nails
Cutting and attenuating the nails will help the medicines used to absorb more deeply. This technique also reduces the nail pressure so that the pain is reduced. You can apply a cream containing urea on a thick nail because of mushrooms, wrap with a bandage, then leave overnight. In the morning, rinse with soap and water. This is useful for making the nail softer so it is easy to cut and dilute.
If the above measures are still not effective to make your nails free from fungal infections, then contact your doctor immediately. Some possible actions of doctors include:
- Prescribe an antifungal medicine to drink
To replace the nail infected by the fungus with a new nail, the doctor may prescribe an antifungal medicine. The process of healing nail fungus with this type of medicine usually takes about four months. The time as long as it takes to get a fungus-free nail and grow perfectly.
- Give medicine in the form of nail polish
Other medicines that may be prescribed doctors are nail polish that has antifungal properties. This antifungal nail polish is commonly called ciclopirox. Its usefulness is to coat the nails and around the infected nails. At the beginning of use, nail polish will be left for seven days before it is cleaned with alcohol. Furthermore, the use of anti-fungus nail polish should be done every day for a year until the fungus is free of mushrooms really obtained.
- Giving potion in the form of cream
Another treatment that can be done is to use anti-fungal cream. Its use is done by rubbing on the infected nails. Make sure the nails are soaked and diluted before the cream is applied. Nail thinning is needed so that the antifungal cream is easier to penetrate the nail layer so that the fungus is more easily removed.
- Nail removal operation
The removal of an infected nail fungus will be recommended by a doctor if it has caused unbearable pain. With the removal of infected nails, new nails will then grow in the same place. The healing process with this method can take a year until the new nails grow perfectly.
- Laser therapy
One of the modern methods that can be done, namely using laser therapy. Unfortunately, despite promising better results, its effectiveness still requires further research. Luckily, there is already a preliminary study that mentions the use of therapy
