This patient presented with onychomycosis (fungal infection) to the left hallux (big-toe). She is a 45 year old female who states that she has had fungus in this nail for at least 5 years. She further states that she has used Loceryl on it for over a year with no noticeable change to the toenail fungus. She has also tried tea tree oil, vicks vaporub, listerine on it. All of these made no difference. 18 months ago in despiration she had the nail surgically removed, she found this very unpleasant and extremely painful. She states that from about 8 weeks the nail started regrowing and she noticed that the fungus was back. It took around 11 months for the nail to fully regrow and she was very disappointed with the result.
She came to me very sceptical about laser, we discussed the likelihood of resolution was around 80% but there were no guarantees made. After thinking about it for 2 weeks she finally decided to give it a try and she also said if this fails she would “give up”.
We treated her nail with laser, she states that there was a little pain but nothing like what she had been through with this problem.
4 Weeks later we did a second laser session which she found fine. We made an appointment 3 months later for follow up.
At 3 months after the second treatment I could see the nail was definitely growing out “clear at the root”, the patient was also very pleased with the result.
We will continue to follow up as 3 month intervals.