Q: I have an ingrown nail that continues to come back no matter what I do to remove it. What would you do to fix it?

A: If a patient experiences a recurrent, ingrown toenail, and if he/she is a good candidate for toenail surgery from a medical standpoint, the toe is gently numbed up with anesthetic, and the ingrown corner of the toenail is removed. The rest of the toenail is left alone. I then place several drops of an acid on the nail “root” at the base of the portion of toenail that I removed to keep that portion of the toenail from growing back and causing any more mischief. I use an injection technique that is minimally painful. Generally after two weeks of Epsom salt water soaks and topical antibiotic application, the toe has recovered from the procedure, which has a roughly 95% success rate.