Toenail Fungus Treatments

Which Treatments Work For Nail Fungus Infections?

With the right treatment, you should be able to get rid of a nail infection caused by fungus, even if you’ve had it for years or it’s very bad. But you may have to be patient. It could take months to clear up.

Diagram of Toenail Fungus

Key points about treating fungal nail infections

• To get rid of a fungal nail infection, you will probably have to take a treatment, sometimes for up to six months.
• Fingernail infections tend to clear up quicker than toenail infections. You may need to take medication for only six weeks for a fingernail infection.
• Some Prespcription Medication can sometimes damage your liver (though this is rare) and you may have a test to check if your liver is healthy before starting a nail fungus treatment.
• Normally doctors recommend pills for this condition, but there are also treatments you can put on an infected nail. If the problem is mild, you might be given a nail varnish or use tea tree oil that kills the fungal infection.
• If your infection is severe or keeps coming back, your doctor might recommend removing part or all of your nail. But this treatment is rarely used.
• If your nail infection doesn’t bother you, you may wish to leave it alone.

There are lots of things you can do to avoid getting a nail infection again. To find out more, see How to keep from getting a fungal nail infection.

Treatments for fungal nail infections

Which treatments work best? We’ve carefully weighed the research and divided treatments for fungal nail infections into three categories.

For help in deciding which treatment is best for you, see How to use medical research to support your treatment decisions.

Benefits very likely outweigh harms

Itraconazole pills (brand name Sporanox): These are antifungal pills. They treat nail infections caused by a fungus.

Terbinafine pills (brand name Lamisil): These are antifungal pills. They treat nail infections caused by a fungus.

Benefits likely outweigh harms

Fluconazole pills (brand name Diflucan): These are antifungal pills. They treat infections caused by a fungus. But fluconazole isn’t usually given to people with nail infections.

Ciclopirox lacquer: You might want to use this antifungal nail polish if you don’t want to take pills and your infection is mild. The brand name of ciclopirox used for fungal nail infection is Penlac Nail Lacquer.

Needs further study

Griseofulvin pills (brand name Grifulvin V): Griseofulvin is an antibiotic. It doesn’t seem to work as well as some other pills against fungal infections. More…

Ketoconazole pills (brand name Nizoral): Ketoconazole is an antifungal drug that isn’t used very often because it can cause liver damage. More…

Terbinafine cream or spray: You can use an antifungal drug called terbinafine as a cream or a spray. The brand name is Lamisil. More…

Removing part or all of your nail: If your infection is severe or keeps coming back, your doctor may suggest removing some or all of your nail. But this isn’t done very often. More…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Toenail Fungus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.