Can I Wear Nail Polish With Fungus On My Nails?

You have fungus on your toe nails and all you want to do is cover it up! Nothing better than nail polish to do that, but you know enough about fungus to know that fungus thrives in moist dark places. Nail polish gives that fungus a wonderful place to grow and thrive! Oakhurst Podiatrist, Dr. Allison Cheney has some options for you.

To start it is so very important to look beyond the nail itself and look at your foot surroundings. Where do you walk? What do you wear?

We do not know exactly how you got your fungus, but we want to keep it from happening again. Keeping your surrounding as "fungus-free" as possible will help!

Let’s go over some key pointers to keeping fungus at bay:

• Spray your shoes with an anti-fungal spray. It helps keep the fungus away!
• Throw away your old grungy gardening shoes if they are not rubber or those old favorite canvas shoes you’ve had forever.
• If you have sweaty feet, change your socks once during the day to keep the moisture down. The less moisture you have, the less than ideal environment a fungus has to grow.
• Use an anti fungal powder on your feet if you tend to sweat a lot.
• Spray "Scrubbing Bubbles" or "Lysol Tub and Tile" type stuff weekly on your shower tiles.
• Wash your bath mats weekly. We don’t know what critters are thriving in them.
• Shampoo your carpet if you haven’t done that in a while. We don’t know what critters are thriving in them either.
• Give your shoes a breather! Try not to wear the same pair twice in a row.
• Get sterile pedicures and stay away from the soaking tubs that have whirlpool effect. They can never get the tubing cleaned properly.
• Bring your own polish and flip flops to the nail salon.

After all this, are you still thinking of the nail polish! It can matter what type of polish you use. Nail polish with Tea tree oil is becoming very popular for a reason. It has been found that tea tree oil is a natural fungal suppressant. What does this mean? It means you can have fungus and wear nail polish too! At our Jersey Shore Podiatry office, we stock nail polish with tea tree oil to offer our patients just what you have been looking for. Podiatrist, Dr. Allison Cheney is so impressed with this product that she recommends you pick up a bottle today to keep your toes looking stylish and "fungus-free"!