Yesterday whilst shopping in Boots, I took the opportunity to walk on over and peruse the section dedicated to foot health. Every time I visit, the range of products seems to be ever increasing both in choice and price!
Similarly, If you type in to Google ( or Bing) a request for todays blog title" Fungal Nail Treatment" the information returned will be a mad panic of dozens of companies offering you their version of a cure-all for fungal nail treatment.
Fungal Nail is one of the foot conditions most seen in clinic and as such I am familiar with the names of many of the products aimed at fungal nail - from many peoples experience of them either from purchasing online or from high street retailers.
When people visit a podiatrist;such as myself,it tends to be at the point when all hope in such products working has been lost. There are a combination of reasons why this is so.
Fungal nail conditions can be present on and around a nail for many months or years going pretty much unnoticed in many people. Other people notice that over time one particular nail is presenting as a fungal nail. Maybe it starts to yellow slightly or in other cases crumbling occurs and the nail starts to become unsightly.
In others slightly weakened immunity or underlying symptoms of another condition can contribute to changes to the nail.
For many a trip to the foot care section will, they hope,bring about a swift resolution to the issue. But then you have to make choices. Do you read the small print and directions? Maybe you try to compare on price and then notice that one product is £10 for 10ml and another is £30 for 3ml so is TEN TIMES dearer! Does this mean it works ten times faster? or is ten times as good?
You look at another product and like the funky packaging and the nifty container. It contains an active ingredient at 0.5% ( so must be good).The small print tells you that the bottle is £20 is expected to last 2-3 weeks and that success is not guaranteed for anyone who does not continue to apply the product twice daily for 6-9 months. A quick calculation and you realise that this product is going to cost £300 plus.
Rather than leave empty handed you choose either one bottle of the cheapest and "give it a go" or a mid range product that you think was used by your great aunt in the 1950's so must be good because its still around!
Or maybe you do nothing, leave empty handed and decide to research more on the internet!
Then, you discover that vinegar, baking soda, tooth paste and even vicks vaporub ( Yes Really !!!) are amongst the wonder cures recommended. A couple of weeks of trial, error and various concoctions and the fungal nail still remains refusing to go.
One last visit to the internet and you are bombarded by "Americas No1 Fungal Treatment" who are ready to offer you a lifetimes supply for a one off special price of just $500 in three easy installments!
If this sounds like you -don't worry, the above is pretty much the standard path taken by many people who visit us at Deva Podiatry seeking advice and a resolution of their fungal nail infection.
This week a new patient visited Deva Podiatry looking for advice on how to address their fungal nail issues. The scenario listed above was pretty much their story. However, in addition they had made a visit to a clinic elsewhere approximately 12 months ago. The clinician offered no solution or in clinic supervised treatment programme. Instead a recommendation to purchase an off the shelf product that "whitens" the nail so that it appears to have improved was given.
I mention this here with very heavy disappointment. A cornerstone to visiting Deva Podiatry is that we want to help you and resolve your foot health problem. It is what we are passionate about. We want to put you on a path to better foot health.
There have been many advances in podiatry in recent years and it is important that a podiatrist can, where possible combine their knowledge and experience with best practice modern podiatry methods, so that they can satisfy the patients requirements.
Upon consultation , the patient referred to above met the criteria for embarking on Nail Fenestration or the Lacuna Method at Deva Podiatry Foot Health Clinic. Within the consultation considerable work was carried out to remove most of the infected fungal nail to one toe and prepare a second toe for treatment.Over the next 6 months they will visit clinic once every 5-6 weeks for a 40 minute review which includes further nail treatment as the new nail grows through. The fee structure for this treatment is clearly listed on the treatment page and is comparable to the pricing of regular routine podiatry.
If anything you have read here resonates with you then either contact us via the contact form with a brief description of your fungal nail problem ( not too graphic please!) or when you make an appointment there is an opportunity to state that the appointment will be for fungal nail consultation.
It should be noted that in a small number of cases a patient will present with advanced fungal nail infection. In such an event your Podiatrist will advise as to why Fungal Nail Treatment ( Fenestration) is not a practical solution and other alternative nail management arrangements will be discussed.
Images of your condition will be taken at the time of consultation and are used within your clinic treatment notes to record the treatment process. Images are never reused or passed on to third parties.
Fungal Nail Treatment under supervision of a Podiatrist has proven to be a successful treatment of Resolution Podiatry. We at Deva Podiatry proactively promote Resolution Podiatry and define it as treatment where the patient and Podiatrist proactively work towards better foot health care and management by implementing changes to foot health that have proven to have a positive impact on overall health and well-being.
You can find out more by clicking on our webpage dedicated to fungal nail treatment here.