Treating Nail Fungal Infection With Laser

Onychomycosis is a fungal infection of the toenails or fingernails that affects the nail plate, nail bed, or both. The nails typically become deformed, discolored, and thick. Infected nails are also more brittle and are more likely to crack and break.

Such fungal nail infection usually isn’t painful unless it becomes severe.

Who is susceptible to onychomycosis?

Fungal nail infection can happen to anyone. However, some people are more likely than others to get a fungal nail infection. These people often have one more of the following conditions:

Diabetes
Athlete’s foot
Hyperhidrosis
Poor immune function
Sustained a nail injury
Other nail diseases

Onychomycosis becomes more common as we get older. It also becomes more challenging to treat successfully.

Is treatment necessary?

Although onychomycosis does not necessarily require treatment, it is advisable to treat as it may spread to other toenails. Antifungal oral medication is effective but it has undesirable side effects such as headache, diarrhea, rash, and itch.

Despite its diseased appearance, onychomycosis is often regarded as a cosmetic problem as people believe that it is not worth the effort to resolve. Onychomycosis can have a significant impact on a person’s emotional and social functioning. Affected people may experience embarrassment in social settings. Over time, it may lead to diminished self-esteem and lack of self-confidence.

Management of onychomycosis

Toenail fungus is challenging to treat. It usually takes several months to completely eliminate the fungus. Very often, the fungus comes back after treatment.

Besides oral and topical antifungal medication, your doctor may also recommend laser treatment as an adjunct therapy for the management of onychomycosis.

Fotona’s ClearSteps onychomycosis treatment uses Nd:YAG laser light to evenly heat the depth of the infected nail and surrounding skin tissue, effectively killing the parasitic fungi under the nail. Studies have found that toenail fungi are sensitive to heat and will die between 40-60°C. The basis of using Nd:YAG laser is to heat the nail bed to reach these temperatures in order to disrupt the fungal growth.