Toe Nail Fungus Treatment

Toe nail fungus treatment is something that causes a lot of frustration and debate. It's difficult: once a fungal infection becomes well established in a nail, it's hard to get rid of, and if you do get rid of it, it often comes back. You get conflicting advice: some people swear by traditional home remedies; some claim that various over-the-counter products or household chemicals will work; some bet on the newest alternative medicine remedies; some insist that a prescription drug is the only solution. It's expensive, especially if you go the prescription drug route. All of these arguments are valid.

When fungus starts to grow in a nail, it grows within the nail itself, rather than in the surrounding tissue, so while exploring how to kill fungus, we have to think about what will penetrate the nail. Especially in the early stages, while the nail is still relatively intact, many types of toe nail fungus treatment simply don't make their way through the thick nail and therefore they tend not to work. Even in severe fungal nail infection, when the nail is softer and crumbly, fungal growth can lie protected between the layers of nail. This is a problem for all but the oral treatments. The speed with which a nail can be cured is limited, of course, by the speed at which the nail grows.

As for the varied types of toe nail fungus treatment, most of them probably work to some degree for some people. There are new prescription medications that show good effectiveness (but they don't work for everyone). Most of them are oral drugs, so they get around the problem of how to kill nail fungus through the thick nail. Remember, however, that when you use an oral medication, you're not just treating the nail, you're treating the whole body - side effects do occur. While many of the home remedies may work as well, they tend to take a very long time and some treatments (like soaking in vinegar) are very time consuming. Some alternative remedies (like tea tree oil) show great promise as toe nail fungus treatment for the future.

When you're considering how to kill nail fungus, it's not pleasant to have to consider the cost, but it's a fact that many people who don't have drug plans to cover a prescription antifungal won't be able to afford the prescription medications. Costing dollars a day and requiring a treatment course of months, they are just too expensive. Alternative medicines are probably the lowest in cost and the best bet in terms of the likelihood of success. Though still expensive relative to vinegar or bleach, two of the home remedies, they are less costly than prescription drugs by a wide margin. Fortunately, they are readily available anywhere, via the internet.