You should not try to squeeze, lance, or cut open an infected ingrown toenail yourself. Forcing pus out with a needle or sharp tool at home pushes bacteria deeper into the tissue, risks spreading the infection to surrounding skin or bone, and often makes the problem worse. What you can do is create conditions that encourage the pus to drain on its own, and recognize when the infection needs professional treatment.
Why You Shouldn’t Squeeze or Lance It
When you see pus around an ingrown toenail, the instinct is to pop it like a pimple. But the tissue around your toenail is tightly packed, with very little room between skin, nail, and bone. Pressing or cutting into that space without proper numbing, sterile instruments, and training can drive bacteria into deeper tissue layers. A localized infection can become cellulitis, a spreading skin infection that causes fever, chills, and rapidly expanding redness. Left untreated, cellulitis can reach the bloodstream, lymph nodes, or even bone.
When podiatrists drain an ingrown toenail abscess, they numb the entire toe with a local anesthetic, apply a tourniquet, use sterile scalpels or scissors to open the area, irrigate the cavity, and pack or dress it properly. This is not something you can replicate safely at your kitchen table.
What Actually Works at Home
The goal of home care is to soften the skin and nail, reduce swelling, and let the trapped pus find its own way out. Warm soaks are the foundation of this approach. Fill a basin with warm (not hot) water, add Epsom salt, and soak your foot for about 10 minutes. Do this two to three times a day. The warmth increases blood flow to the area, the salt helps draw fluid out of swollen tissue, and the softened skin is more likely to release trapped pus naturally.
After each soak, gently dry your toe and apply a thin layer of over-the-counter antibiotic ointment. A combination product containing polymyxin and neomycin (sold as Neosporin) is the most commonly recommended option. Cover the toe with a clean bandage to keep bacteria out. If the nail edge is visibly digging into the skin, you can try to very gently lift it with a small piece of clean cotton or waxed dental floss tucked under the corner of the nail. This creates a tiny gap between the nail and the inflamed skin fold, giving the area room to drain and heal.
Wear open-toed shoes or sandals while the toe is inflamed. Tight shoes press the nail deeper into the skin and trap moisture, both of which feed the infection.
Signs the Infection Is Getting Worse
Mild redness and a small amount of pus around an ingrown nail can often resolve with consistent soaking and topical care. But certain signs mean the infection is outpacing what home treatment can handle:
- Spreading redness that extends beyond the immediate area of the nail, especially red streaks moving up the toe or foot
- Increasing pain that gets worse over 48 hours despite soaking
- Fever or chills, which suggest the infection may be entering your bloodstream
- A rapidly growing swollen rash around the toe or foot
- Thickening pus that changes color to dark yellow or green, or develops a strong odor
A fever with a swollen, painful toe is an emergency room situation. A worsening rash without fever still warrants seeing a doctor within 24 hours.
What a Podiatrist Will Do
If home care isn’t enough, a podiatrist can resolve the problem in a single office visit. After numbing your toe completely, they’ll remove the section of nail that’s digging into your skin, drain any abscess, clean the wound, and dress it. The whole thing typically takes 15 to 30 minutes, and you walk out of the office on your own foot.
For nails that keep growing back into the skin, the doctor may apply a chemical solution to the nail root along one edge. This kills the growth cells in that narrow strip so the problematic section of nail doesn’t return. Recovery from this type of partial nail removal usually takes a few weeks of keeping the area clean and bandaged.
If You Have Diabetes or Poor Circulation
Diabetes changes the equation entirely. Reduced blood flow to the feet means infections heal slowly and spread quickly. Nerve damage (common in diabetes) can also mask pain, so an infection may be more advanced than it feels. An ingrown toenail infection in someone with diabetes can progress to bone infection, tissue death (gangrene), and in severe cases, amputation. If you have diabetes, skip home treatment and go directly to a podiatrist at the first sign of redness or swelling around a toenail.
The same applies if you have peripheral artery disease, are on immunosuppressive medications, or have any condition that impairs wound healing.
Preventing Ingrown Nails From Coming Back
Most ingrown toenails come from how the nail is trimmed. The single most important change: cut your toenails straight across instead of rounding the corners. Curved cuts encourage the nail edge to grow downward into the skin fold. Aim for a square shape, then lightly file the corners to remove any sharp edges that catch on socks.
Length matters too. Cutting nails too short exposes the skin at the nail edges and gives the nail a chance to grow into it as it comes back. Leave a small visible strip of white nail at the tip. Your toenails should be roughly even with the end of your toe, not shorter.
Shoes that squeeze your toes together, especially narrow dress shoes and pointed heels, press the nail into surrounding skin repeatedly throughout the day. Switching to shoes with a wider toe box reduces that mechanical pressure. If you’re prone to ingrown nails on a specific toe, keeping the nail slightly longer on that side and filing rather than clipping the corners can break the cycle.