Why Nail Fungus Comes Back

Many people experience the frustration of wondering why nail fungus comes back after they’ve fought a long battle and thought they’d won. Sadly, nail fungus is not only hard to eliminate but notoriously adept at returning time and time again. Medical experts think that there are several reasons why this is so.

Recurrent nail fungus infection (onychomycosis) may actually be the same infection: a reactivation of a dermatophyte that was believed to be gone, but which actually remained alive in such small quantities that it was undetectable. When treatment ended, latent fungal elements had a chance to start growing once again and reestablish the fungal infection in the nail. This is likely to be a common reason why nail fungus comes back, because thorough and complete treatment typically takes many months – people receiving treatment grow tired of the effort required and may end treatment before it is actually safe to do so.

Another reason that some people are plagued by recurrent nail fungus infection is that they are, in some way, more susceptible. The fungi that cause onychomycosis are actually very common – many people come in contact with them and never develop nail infections, while others seem to develop these infections quite readily. If you are one of the people that is easily infected, this provides another clue as to why nail fungus comes back – one infection has nothing to do with the next; it’s simply a result of frequent exposure to an organism that you’re susceptible to for some reason.

Finally, certain occupations obviously provide more exposure to potentially infectious fungi than others do and thus increase the chances of recurrent nail fungus infection. The few saprophytic fungi (fungi that break down dead organic matter in nature and do not usually infect living organisms) known to cause onychomycosis are common in soil, humus, and sewage: people such as construction workers, gardeners, sanitary engineers etc. are at increased risk. Similarly, the more common dermatophytes are found in damp public areas and on human skin, hair, and nails: swimming pool attendants, spa employees, hair stylists, and other beauty experts are doubtless exposed more frequently than the rest of us and have more reason to ask why nail fungus comes back.

Treating Onychomycosis

Onychomycosis is the medical term for fungal infection of nails—finger nails or toenails—and treating onychomycosis is a puzzle that people have been struggling with for centuries. The problem is that once a fungus is well established, growing in the matrix of the nail, it’s hard to get rid of and it tends to keep coming back. Even in our twenty-first century world of medical miracles, nail fungus is a stubborn problem for many many people.

The first step toward an onychomycosis cure is to confirm the diagnosis. There are a number of different infections and medical conditions that cause deformity and discoloration in nails, and many can look disturbingly like onychomycosis. Because of this, consultation with a medical professional who can differentiate and diagnose is important. Treating onychomycosis, of course, requires a different approach from treating the other possibilities.

Once the diagnosis is confirmed, the physician will probably offer a prescription drug for treating onychomycosis—these range from oral medications such as Lamicil, Sporanox, and Diflucan to a topical nail lacquer called Penlac. These drugs are undoubtedly safer and more effective than prescription antifungals have been in the past; however, many people don’t choose this option because of cost, concerns about side effects, and the lack of a guarantee of onychomycosis cure. There simply is no treatment currently known that is guaranteed to work.

Among the over-the-counter products that promise an onychomycosis cure, the best choices currently seem to be topical preparations made from essential oils. The idea here is that plants, which must defend themselves against fungal attack in nature, produce compounds with antifungal properties that are useful in treating onychomycosis in people. Some essential plant oils, notably tee tree oil, have undergone extensive testing in scientific laboratories and the evidence suggests that these antifungal compounds do indeed exist. Encouragingly, essential oils also appear to have antibacterial and antiviral properties, while being relatively harmless when applied topically to human infections.

Anyone undergoing onychomycosis cure should remain under the supervision of a medical professional and use antifungal preparations only as directed.