Treatment of nail fungus takes at least six months and is subject to properly prescribed therapy. Many people, especially on the eve of summer, are worried about the question: how soon will the nails return to their previous healthy appearance? What will they look like right after starting treatment? And after a month or two?
In addition, whether the treatment is effective or not can be determined by the appearance of the nails. Let's see what you should pay attention to in the appearance of your nails after fungal treatment.
Why is nail fungus difficult to treat?
Onychomycosis (fungal infection of the nail plate) is very difficult to treat in all people. There are three reasons for this:
The microbe enters the nail bed and all local medicines cannot reach it. Moreover, most fungi provide themselves with "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 his nails, the fungus re-enters the nail bed through the skin of the foot.
Re-infection also occurs with own socks, shoes, and bathing/showering.
Classic types of treatment for onychomycosis
Currently, medicine uses three main approaches to treat nail fungus:
Systemic drugs in the form of tablets or capsules. They can help, but for this you need to take them for a long course - from 4 to 18 months. All of these drugs are toxic to the liver, and their intake can be complicated by diarrhea, skin rashes, and changes in taste. Therefore, during treatment, you should strictly follow a therapeutic diet, stop drinking alcohol and periodically take blood tests - "liver tests".
Local means (creams, varnishes). They do not always penetrate the nail plate well. Therefore, it should be prepared in advance: cut the enlarged masses of the nail with scissors or remove them using a cutter. You can't do it yourself: you can damage the cells that make up the nail plate.
Combined therapy: the simultaneous administration of a systemic drug and the application of a local antifungal agent to the affected nail. It is used in severe cases to slightly reduce the severity of side effects of systemic drugs. The effectiveness of such treatment is not very high.
In some cases, dermatologists remove the affected nail plate before prescribing local treatment. Now they try to do this less and less, limiting themselves to filling only the affected area so that the nail bed does not become infected with bacteria.
It seems that onychomycosis can be left untreated, but in fact it means more than an aesthetic defect. It can lead to a severe mixed (fungal and bacterial) infection of the foot or hand, which can lead to gangrene.
What do the nails look like after treating the fungus?
In the first 2-3 months after starting the use of local drugs, the nail plate will not change noticeably. The fungi remaining in the subungual space continue to multiply and the nail thickens again or, conversely, thins. The growing plate retains its pathological color for some time: yellow, milky white, black or brown. It can still be scaly, ribbed or curved. It may have chips on it or an area where it has moved away from its bed.
When treated with tablets, pathological changes can be observed in the growing nail plate in less than two months. Then, after treating the fungus, the area of the nail closest to the hole should take on a healthy look:
- to be smooth;
- change color to pink or red, uniform color;
- get the normal thickness.
If the nail grows back after removing the entire nail plate, it has the right to be a little thin. This is also an indicator of his health.
If after 2-3 months the color, thickness or smoothness of the nails remains unchanged despite the treatment, the therapy should be reconsidered.
How soon the whole nail will be healthy
It depends on the growth rate of the nail plates. It affects:
- age: the younger the person, the higher the speed;
- the nature of nutrition: insufficient intake of vitamins and trace elements reduces the growth rate of nails;
- Ambient temperature: nails grow faster in hot climates;
- the frequency of nail injuries: they slow down the growth of plates;
- hormonal condition: for example, during pregnancy, the growth rate of the plate increases;
- the presence of common chronic diseases: slows down nail growth;
- taking drugs that affect the rate of cell division.
After treating the fungus on the hands, on average, a healthy nail grows in 6 months, and on the feet in 12-18 months. Fingernails and toenails grow slower than others. So, if the nail plates on the 2-5 fingers of the lower limbs grow at a rate of 1 mm per month, this rate on the first finger is up to 0. 7 mm per month.
How to speed up the treatment of onychomycosis?
Laser therapy can be used to make nails grow faster after fungal treatment. This 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 there to a high temperature, as a result of which they die. In addition, 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 the laser treatment session, the patient should apply the recommended cream or varnish to the nails, and also carefully treat the shoes with an antiseptic to prevent re-infection.
The effectiveness of neodymium laser treatment of onychomycosis has been tested in several foreign multicenter studies. It is an excellent addition to local treatment, has a short procedure time and is not accompanied by side effects.
Thus, a healthy nail plate should start growing in the first months from the start of treatment. It may be a little thinner than usual, but has a uniform pink color and smoothness. When the affected plates are treated with a neodymium laser, the treatment process is significantly accelerated.