Ingrowing nail is a problem that mainly occurs in big toe. There are various causes of ingrowing nail; wearing narrow box shoes, cutting the nail too deep resulting in infection and erroneous nail cutting style are some of those causes. However, nail ingrowing may occur without having any factors reported above. In some cases, the problem is deformation of the matrix of the nail that causes ingrowing beginning from the root of the nail.

The severity of nail ingrowing differs according to the situation. While in some cases there is only pain, in serious cases there is infection, drainage and necrotic tissue formation. Every ingrowing nail must be properly handled independent to the severity since a simple ingrowing may rapidly progress to infectious stage.

In the early stage of ingrowing, there is only pain with compression or while wearing narrow box shoes. With progression, erythema and swelling becomes obvious. In untreated case, ingrowing of the nail compromises the defense mechanism of the skin and causes infection. If proper treatment and antibiotic utilization neglected, the necrotic tissue formation called "granulation" begins to invade the nail that prevents antibiotic penetration. This situation worsens the condition. If nail growing progresses to granulation stage, the only treatment may be partial excision of the nail with nail bed.