Please help! Clients with fungal toenails

[sugarnails]

Hello,

I am at a loss for what to do as far as toe nails go. I have turned down a few people from what looked like an obvious fungal infection such as crumbling from nail plate/white cloudy underneath nail plate but there are so many bad toe nails out there it is so hard to tell sometimes. I live in a tropical climate so there are a lot of fungal toes here...I have to say though it is a rarity that I get a customer with perfect toe nails. There are a lot that look like they are lifting or can appear discoloured but these do not necessarily mean an infection as they can be fro trauma to nails or staining. Then there are the odd ones that have a tiny bit on one toe for example. I have heard podiatrists say that a lot of people have fungal toe infections and some do not appear obvious to the naked eye. I guess now I am freaking out as I just don't low what to do anymore. I have heard on forums here some people using disposable cuticle pushers/files for toe nails if in doubt and also the polish as bacteria etc does not survive in the polish bottles. The implements I do use are always washed in soapy water, then soaked in hospital disinfectant , then sprayed with another anti-vac surface spray.

Please if anyone can shed any light on what direction I should take I would be so appreciative. I m just so confused as I am yet to see a perfect set of toes!

 

[JERSEY JOCK]

Maybe buy Doug Schoons book.... Very informative :Kissing:

 

[sugarnails]

Thank you I will be getting it but now I guess I am freaking out about my whole polish range which has cost so much for the sake of painting a nail which has lifted to what I thought as trauma =( I do get a lot of older clientele and their feet are always less then perfect. I just don't know if the scrub fresh I put on before will have helped any before contaminating the polish if it was in fact fungal.

 

[propeditechus]

I spoke directly with Doug Schoon about polishing toenails and contaminating polishes. I was worried too once I learned all about athlete's foot and toenail fungus, as I have a huge polish collection and was concerned it was being compromised. I have also learned that what you think may be toenail fungus might just be a trauma to the nail. The nail may not look normal, but that does not mean it is fungal. I had an injury to my own foot, and spent the money out of curiosity to have it tested for toenail fungus as I was so sure it was. Guess what - it was not fungal! And I thought I knew better, ha. Shows that you can't always tell.

Very basically, he assured me that polish cannot sustain bacteria and fungus because of the ingredients in polish. There is nothing in polish to support it growning or living in the bottle. I asked him point blank how long the bottle had to be closed to eliminate a contaminant if one by chance "got in there". He gave me an answer of 10 minutes to be on the safe side. He said the way you could possibly infect someone else would be to polish someone's infected toenails and then take the brush right to the next person and polish their nails.

 

[sugarnails]

Oh my gosh thank you thank you thank you!!! It is near midnight here in Australia so I was not going to bed until getting an answer haha. I feel so much better now knowing that and having a definite answer as I found it was in the "unknown" territory as far as nail fungus goes and polish bottles. I just felt like I was turning everyone away for a flaw in the nail that could have been trauma etc so thanks again. =)