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Toenail Fungus Treatment Options

Toenail fungus is a relatively common infection that affects 2%-18% people in the World. If you have this infection, then you must know that choosing the right toenail fungus treatment or nail fungus home treatment is the first step for healthy toenails.

Toenail fungus or onychomicosis, is a fungal infection that appears due to certain factors such as poor foot hygiene, tight footwear, layers of toenail polish, circulatory problems, and frequenting showers. In early stages there’s a slightly change in the color and thickness of the nail.  As the fungal infection advances, the nail becomes very thick, growing up instead of out, the color changes to a dark yellow brown and ends up totally deformed or even falling out from your feet, to then grow again still infected.

Once the nail is infected, it is best to start fungus treatment as soon as possible, because complete healing can take months to complete.  The best treatment so far for toenail fungus is oral medication. Doctors recommend Itraconazole (Sporanox) and Terbinafine (Lamisil) - available at drugstore.com -, which have and effectiveness of around 70%, and the have to be taken for 3 months every single day. This can be somewhat expensive, but is the best method.

There are other options of medications besides oral treatment, that are not very effective, but can work very well in combination to attack toenail fungus infections.  One of them is Ciclopirox (Penlac) lacquer for nails.  However, this nail treatment it is only available through prescription.

You may also have heard of home remedies and over the counter products.  Home remedies are treatments that get passed through generations, and their effectiveness is not always exact, for some they can provide the perfect cure, but for others they can prove useless.  However it’s very easy to start home toenail treatment for results, because home remedy fungus treatments are very safe in general, but it takes time and daily application without skipping a single day.

You can try any method you want.  But from my experience I think that combination is the best.  For example you can take oral medication and at the same time apply some over the counter cream, or a remedy directly on the nail.