Bacterial infection under natural nail plate..what to do?

[Jessicles]

I have looked all over the site, reading about bacterial infections, but none mention it being under the natural nail.

A regular client of mine came in today with a serious bacterial infection (very dark green) on her nail. I first suspected that there was sidewall lifting and we had trapped some moisture, but upon further inspection, after she mentioned her nail "feeling loose", I discovered that the infection was not under the acrylic overlay at all...it was under the natural nail. Onycholysis was definitely present, so I understand why it happened, it's the same idea as if it were under the overlay. I just don't know how to treat it or what to tell her to do about it. (This lady has very difficult nails..very very large, wide nail beds due to thyroid problems, one vertically split nail that was ripped down to the eponychium which, with the help of an overlay, has now grown out..I do not believe the onycholysis was caused by thinning of the nail plate. The overlay was put on correctly by me and has not been removed, just filled since then.)

Tell me if I did the right thing....I didn't soak off the acrylic, because I was afraid if I did, sh would rip her natural nail back farther, worsening the onycholysis...So I took the length down considerably and sprayed an antiseptic spray that also contained thymol under her nail. I then gaver her some of the spray to take home with her to use every day and told her if the nail plate was not reattaching by the time of her next fill (two weeks), that we would soak off and send her to the doctor. I did tell her to call me if she noticed anything changing for the worse...darker green, pain, farther lifting, etc..

Have any of you geeks experienced this? What did/would you do?

Thanks in advance,
Jess

 

[angel fingers]

I have looked all over the site, reading about bacterial infections, but none mention it being under the natural nail.

A regular client of mine came in today with a serious bacterial infection (very dark green) on her nail. I first suspected that there was sidewall lifting and we had trapped some moisture, but upon further inspection, after she mentioned her nail "feeling loose", I discovered that the infection was not under the acrylic overlay at all...it was under the natural nail. Onycholysis was definitely present, so I understand why it happened, it's the same idea as if it were under the overlay. I just don't know how to treat it or what to tell her to do about it. (This lady has very difficult nails..very very large, wide nail beds due to thyroid problems, one vertically split nail that was ripped down to the eponychium which, with the help of an overlay, has now grown out..I do not believe the onycholysis was caused by thinning of the nail plate. The overlay was put on correctly by me and has not been removed, just filled since then.)

Tell me if I did the right thing....I didn't soak off the acrylic, because I was afraid if I did, sh would rip her natural nail back farther, worsening the onycholysis...So I took the length down considerably and sprayed an antiseptic spray that also contained thymol under her nail. I then gaver her some of the spray to take home with her to use every day and told her if the nail plate was not reattaching by the time of her next fill (two weeks), that we would soak off and send her to the doctor. I did tell her to call me if she noticed anything changing for the worse...darker green, pain, farther lifting, etc..

Have any of you geeks experienced this? What did/would you do?

Thanks in advance,
Jess

i have had just this thing happen to me... on one of my own nails.

i treated it by removing all the length from the acrylic, then soaking the affected nail in some surgical spirit for a few minutes.

afterwards and twice a day until it had grown out i dropped a little neat tea tree oil down the back of the nail. tea tree is antiseptic and healing.

additionaly i massaged in my regular cuticle oil 2-3 times a day to boost the rate of growth and the nail reattatched its self nicely.

it didnt take too long and the healthy new growth soon replaced the infected nail. if you are keeping the acrylic on be doubly sure there is no lifting so that bacteria can not get under this layer too. and try to keep the nail as dry as possible since its moisture under the lifted part that has caused the problem. i used a hairdryer to blow dry my nails coz i was paranoid that it would stay damp behind that gap !

 

[patis]

i would soak off the acrylic and remoove it very gently

the green spot you see is their waists

bacteria need oxygenless wet and hot habitat to grow so
you should remoove acrylic and use scrub fresh and nail fresh (dehydrators) on the disposable cotton pad and throw away every file or tool you used

then the spray you gave to the client will work

if in few weeks time this will do no better send her to specialist

 

[nail-chick]

It must be something in the air!
I just had this happen to my client.
I was filing her nail down for a fill, when she just went "OUCH!".
I've never had this happen before.
I figured I would clean it with Scrub Fresh. When I put it to the nail, she said it hurt terribly!
I cut down the nail. She went home with 9 nails done for Christmas and one very funky one.
I told her to call me when it didn't hurt and I would check it out and possibly put a nail on.
Should I?
This is a very good question Jessicles!

Kathleen
My Nails Rock!

 

[Jessicles]

Yeah, I mentioned the hair dryer thing to her as well. Thanks for the reply. :]