RIP toenail. Now what?

October 2, 2012 2:04 PM

Gross/TMI: Dropped a shelf on my big toe. Now the toenail is falling off. Is this something I have to go to the doctor for? Anything else I ought to do?

More than a month ago, I dropped a shelf on my big toe while trying to move it by myself. It hurt. My toe bled, but after a day or two it felt pretty much fine. I didn't think too much of it. It was swollen the first day, and I kept ice on it and stayed off of it.

My nail seemed a little dead, but I didn't think too much of it. Then, just this week, it started to come off and I realized it is Totally Dead. It is now attached only on one side of the toe, separated on the bottom and right sides.

Will it eventually just fall off the rest of the way? I admit I kind of want it to just fall off because it's annoying me. I'm assuming a new one will grow in? Should I go see my doctor? Anything else I should do?

Any other advice on dead toenails?

Thank you.

posted by Lutoslawski to health & fitness (31 answers total)

Time will pass and toenails will grow--my only advice--wear steel tipped shoes and do not drop things on your foot.
posted by rmhsinc at 2:07 PM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

It will fall off and a new one will grow in. It's gross but shouldn't be a problem though you should take care to keep the nail bed clean because if you get an infection or (other) injury on it, it could cause the nail to grow back a little weirdly. If you have no other issues and no other infection looking things then I'd just try to leave it alone (maybe put a bandage around it) and it will fall off soon enough.
posted by jessamyn at 2:08 PM on October 2, 2012 [5 favorites]

Whenever this happens to me there is always already a surprise new nail under the dead one and it makes me feel like a SHARK.

Is there no new toenail under falling off toenail?
posted by skrozidile at 2:10 PM on October 2, 2012 [8 favorites]

This happened to me a few years ago after a really long bike ride some shoes that didn't fit quite right. Big toenail turned black and eventually fell off. It looked gross for a bit, but another one grew in and it was fine. I hear this happens to marathoners quite a bit, too, if the 'TOENAILS ARE FOR SISSIES" bumperstickers are any indication.
posted by jquinby at 2:11 PM on October 2, 2012

You might be able to bend / rip it off. I remember when I had my thumbnail hit by a baseball years ago that I could bend the nail all the way back, exposing the tender skin underneath. Once I bent it back and forth enough, it snapped off.
posted by dobi at 2:12 PM on October 2, 2012

My Mother also dropped a dresser on her toe and the nail grew back, but it grew in sort of funky and she ended up getting a fungal infection. So try to keep it clean and dry until the nail grows back.

I also slammed my thumb extremely hard on a sliding-glass door and the nail fell off sometime later, but there was already a nail almost fully grown underneath. (on preview: YES, skrozidile, like a SHARK :D )
posted by littlesq at 2:14 PM on October 2, 2012

It will just drop off of its own accord - you may want to wrap a band-aid around it to stop it getting caught and ripping the rest of the way off, which may be painful and bloody. Another will grow back and is probably already coming through under the old one. Routine stuff for long-distance walkers/runners.
posted by dg at 2:16 PM on October 2, 2012

Great news! This is reassuring.

Is there no new toenail under falling off toenail?

Hmm, it's a little hard to see under there, but no, it doesn't really look like it. A terrible sign?
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:20 PM on October 2, 2012

Yup. Lost not one but two on a recent hiking trip. Hadn't walked in boots in a while.

Gross, but totally painless, and new ones are growing back.
posted by drjimmy11 at 2:21 PM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

Do you have a firm half-circle where the "moon" of your toenail used to be? That's the beginning of your new toenail. When my toenail fell off, I just assumed that was skin, because it was pink and not totally hard or obviously nail-like. Nope, it was toenail! It'll toughen as it grows.
posted by Metroid Baby at 2:24 PM on October 2, 2012 [1 favorite]

I couldn't see new nail until it got there. Old n busted fell off, new hotness was ready to take over.

It is a pretty good deal. Do not worry. Also do not play with christmas presents in the south unless there is a Real Adult present.
posted by skrozidile at 2:26 PM on October 2, 2012

Do you have a firm half-circle where the "moon" of your toenail used to be?

I totally do! I thought that was just the skin because yeah, it's sort of not nail-like.

Thanks everyone. You guys are the best.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:27 PM on October 2, 2012

I slammed my pinky finger in a drawer a while back, and it spent about a month cloudy and ominous. Toward the end I could feel water slipping under there and I could tell it was lifting up.

When it came off, it scared the crap out of me but was painless. It revealed a thin little proto-nail that had grown about halfway up, and then bare skin that had that horrible tooth-vibrating new skin tender feeling. I had to be a little gentle when typing, but otherwise it's been no big deal. The tender skin is still really sensitive but not painful.
posted by Lyn Never at 2:29 PM on October 2, 2012

I slammed my finger in a door once, and was pretty freaked out when the nail fell off a week or so later. But a new one was already starting to grow in.

I just kept a band-aid wrapped around it to protect the nail bed, and then everything was fine.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:50 PM on October 2, 2012

most likely a new one will grow, In the rather rare case that it doesn't, rest assured their isn't crap a doctor could have done about it.

The biggest thing is make sure you have good foot care. (trauma is a good way for nail fungus to start)
No soggy socks
flip flops or slip ons in wet gym/pool/shower areas
Give them air as much as possible
don't drink excessively
posted by couchdive at 2:50 PM on October 2, 2012

As others have said, the toenail will grow back. Unless your foot is still in major pain (which you don't mention, but it could indicate a broken toe if it is still in pain a month later), you don't need to go the the doctor.

**IANAD
posted by asnider at 2:51 PM on October 2, 2012

Been here several times (marathons, hiking, ...).

Hang in there! It will grow back!
posted by sarah_pdx at 2:56 PM on October 2, 2012

I did that last year. Who knew opening the front door into my toe after a long hot bath would do that?

My coworker had suggested to me that I soak my foot in some comfortably hot water and epsom salt to help make sure there weren't any germs hanging out.

I definitely had to be extra gentle with the toe because that skin is tender underneath! You might want to wear a band-aid over it for a while, too, as it grows back.
posted by jillithd at 2:57 PM on October 2, 2012

Take care of how it grows back, after the dead nail falls off. You don't want the nail growing back weird, because it can turn into an ingrown toenail, which is an excruciatingly painful experience. Imagine someone constantly dropping a shelf on your toe every time you walk and the tip of the shoe hits your toe — that's what that feels like.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:10 PM on October 2, 2012

Yeah, happened to me too a few years ago, too much walking in bad shoes that went right in the trash. I was freaked out at first, but it grew back. Don't worry.
posted by mermayd at 3:24 PM on October 2, 2012

I just had surgery to remove parts of my toenails, and the podiatrist recommended twice-daily foot baths for 20 minutes at a time. For the first two weeks it was a cap-ful of iodine in the water (reduced risk of infection, I believe), then the next several weeks a tablespoon of Epsom salts. I was instructed to keep it bandaged (with a band-aid) when I wasn't bathing it at first, then eventually only when I went out. A similar program would probably help you heal up right.
posted by carsonb at 3:28 PM on October 2, 2012

This has happened to me with depressing regularity since I got back into dancing. From the sounds of it, you basically just broke your nail and it will probably grow back.

One thing that sometimes has helped me is to paint the toenail as soon as I see a crack. This seems to seal it down and encourage the wound to heal. It doesn't always work, like it didn't with my latest break which happened right above the cuticle.

Another thing that has sometimes helped is gluing on a false nail, but that is dubious because a) you use superglue, and what happens when the false nail starts to come off? and b) you are gluing the false nail to a detached toenail, so it might not stay on, unless you glue it to the nailbed, and think about the implications of that for a moment.

I have also tried taking a single ply of tissue paper, fitting it over the crack, and painting nail polish over that. That can also help a little bit against further tearing.

All these ideas might be terribly bad for you, for all I know. By the way.
posted by tel3path at 4:24 PM on October 2, 2012

You're fine--just make sure the old toenail is completely gone when it falls off, or you could end up with an ingrown nail when the new nail starts pushing the old nail material up/to the side. Not generally dangerous, but potentially very painful.

I perform home surgery (not recommended, btw) on my toenails constantly because they're always falling off or ingrown, so I'm quite used to the pain of ripping the entire nail out of the sides of the nail bed, but my mother softens hers up with warm water before any ripping happens.

It will take forever to grow back. I lost two fingernails and the very tip of one of my fingers when I was still riding a tricycle, and it was at least 6 months before my nails were fully grown in. Toenails can take even longer.
posted by xyzzy at 5:06 PM on October 2, 2012

Through the idiocy of improper shoe size vanity, I lost both my big toenails a year ago September. It took a full year for me to get my nails all the way back. So, it's not a quick process, but it'll happen. Watch out for ingrown toenails along the edges (kind of lift the edge away from your skin every once in a while).
posted by cecic at 5:25 PM on October 2, 2012

It'll most likely take longer than you think to grow all the way back. I think mine took a year. (Dancing all night in shoes that were meant only for sitting and posing.)

Because it was tender, I had a job where appearance mattered, and I apparently had money to burn, I got an acrylic nail put on my big toe until it was finished healing.

So that's an option.
posted by Space Kitty at 8:20 PM on October 2, 2012

I dropped a lamp on my big toe. It pulled the toenail halfway off, and since it hurt already, I pulled the nail the rest of the way off. The new nail came in like a pancake rising from where the old nail had been, hardening as it rose, covering the whole surface at once rather than growing from moon to tip. Weird. Anyway, however it happens for you, you're fine.
posted by melesana at 9:26 PM on October 2, 2012

In absence of other complications, leave the old toenail in place as long as possible. It protects your toe while the new nail grows out. A whole toenail takes a long time to grow. It could be six months, a year, or more to full length, although the old nail will fall off before that point. Don't be surprised if the part of the new nail that was under the old nail looks a little weird and shiny, it will grow out.
posted by anaelith at 5:42 AM on October 3, 2012

If you can, I recommend supergluing the old nail in place to the bottom of the nail wear it is torn. When this happened to me (nail was torn off and hanging on one side of my big toe) I couldn't bare having a raw, naked toe exposed to the world while the new nail grew in, but after awhile that old nail is going to come more and more detached. I superglued my nail where it had torn off to the un-damaged bit of nail at the end. It worked really well. I would need to re-glue every week or so but it kept my nail bed protected while the new nail grew in.
posted by Polychrome at 6:26 AM on October 3, 2012 [1 favorite]

It takes a long time for that half moon nubbin to grow into a whole new nail. Epsom salt foot baths for a few days wouldn't hurt. I've pulled off dead nails and let them come off on their own- let it fall off to avoid tender raw goopy skin on the nailbed.

Be sure not to paint the new nubbin. The polish stunted one of my new nails and one side grew faster, curving it sideways. Ouch. Then I lost that nail and this one grew straight!
posted by BigJen at 6:38 AM on October 3, 2012

I lost the same toenail twice, and my best friend lost a toenail around the same time.

Soak your foot in lukewarm saltwater (about as salty as the ocean).

Is the dead toenail poking you and hurting you? If so, clip off as much of it as you can, leaving as rounded an edge as you can. If not, leave it alone - it is protecting the area under it. Keep it as clean as possible.

Not much else to do - your toe will fix itself!
posted by fullerenedream at 7:27 AM on October 3, 2012

It'll regrow from the nailbed.

It's quite uncomfortable, especially wearing socks and shoes, try and keep the shoes loose and as mentioned above the socks dry. If possible wear nothing on your feet for as long as possible. But it won't kill you.

Once dropped an 11 gallon barrel on his foot from a 6 foot stillage

Dear god, an edit function!
posted by hardcode at 3:08 PM on October 3, 2012