What are fungal nails?
A fungal nail is caused by a fungal infection of the nail. Fungal nail or onychomycosis is also called lime nail. The most common causes are the fungi Trichophyton rubrum and Tricophyton interdigital. Onychomycosis mainly occurs with the toenail, but the fingernails can also become infected. It is the most common condition of the nail that the pedicure comes across.
Therapy
Until a few years ago, swallowing an antifungal medicine was the only remedy. The topical application of an antifungal agent is often not effective. Since 2010, laser treatment has been introduced as an effective method. The nail surface is heated with the laser at a maximum of 46 C to 53 C, thereby combating the fungus.
The use of Papiopad heat compresses on the nail heats the nail surface to 49 C, the skin around the nail does not get warmer than 44 C. Papiopad heat compresses are also suitable to treat the nail at home as opposed to the laser treatment.
Ask your pedicurist about treatment of fungal nails with Papiopad.
In collaboration with pedicures, we developed a Papiopad treatment set for fungal nails, Papiopad Nagel.. Pedicures who want to be informed about the purchase price can contact us via info@papiopad.com or 085 4011932.
Use of Papiopad heat compresses
Activate a Papiopad heat compress by clicking the metal disc. Press the heat compress against the nail by hand. The Papiopad heat compress therefore immediately hits the nail. Wrap the bandage around the toes so that the compress remains in place. Replace the heat pack after 15 minutes with a newly activated heat pack. The treatment is finished after 30 minutes.
If the heat compress hurts, stop the treatment and use a compote cover to cover the heat compress. The temperature is now slightly lower. If the pain persists, do not continue treatment.
Treatment once a week gives the best results. It takes 6 to 18 months before the affected nail is completely replaced by healthy nail due to outgrowth.
The heat compresses are reused after they have been regenerated by boiling in water.
Treatment of shoes of persons with fungal nails
The socks and shoes of people with fungal nails can get infected with the fungus that causes fungal nails. Socks can be disinfected in the 60 C wash. Shoes can be disinfected with Papiopad heat compresses.
Push two (at the same time) activated heat compresses into the toe of the shoe and let it sit for an hour. The shoe is heated to 50 C from the inside. Treat the shoe every time you treat the nail.
TOO HOT?
HEAT TREATMENT SHOULD NOT BE PAINFUL
Papiopad causes a local fever by heating the fungal nail. The body is used to fight and remove the fungal infection, remove, grow out of the infected part of the nail disappears. It is important to know that the nail tissue is the fungus, but it cannot be faster than the nail growing. A toenail grows completely out in about 9 months. This time is therefore also needed for a nail to fully recover after effectively going to the fungal infection.
THERAPY
The Papiopad heat compress heats the nail surface to 49 C, the skin around the nail does not get hotter than 44 C. Most people tolerate this temperature well. But if you want, you can lower the temperature with a compress sleeve to around 42 C.
HOW?
Put the heat compress in the compress sleeve.
Put the bandage on the compress in the sleeve, then position that whole on the infected spot and continue the normal instruction.
An treatment session now takes 2 times 20 minutes, so a total of 40 minutes (instead of 30 minutes without a sleeve). Continue treatment according to the normal protocol, so once a week.
REUSE OF PAPIOPAD
Papiopad can be reused. For this, the used Papiopad heat compresses, compuse cases and bandages must be boiled in water. This prevents the spread of the wart virus and reactivates the Papiopad heat compresses. Even the case of the treatment set is resistant to cooking.
PREPARE FOR REUSE
After cooling, the heat compresses used are hard. You prepare them for use again by boiling them in water. Proceed as follows:
1- Put the hard heat compresses in a pan with sufficient water so that the compresses are just submerged.
2- Bring the water to the boil and continue to boil for 5 minutes until all crystals have dissolved in the compresses. The compresses are completely clear again.
3- Allow the air compresses to cool to room temperature. The compress is again ready for use. Keep the compresses in a clean place.
Tip: use the Papiopad regeneration bag to boil up and cool down the compresses, bandage and companion cases. The compresses, bandage and companion cases are then all disinfected and in a clean bag. The Papiopad regeneration bag is also available separately.
Skin fungus and fungal nails science
Causes of skin fungus and fungal nails
Skin fungi (dermatomycosis) arise because fungi or yeasts (especially Candida or Malassezia) settle down the stratum corneum of the skin. Because fungi or yeasts almost always occur in human skin, dermatomycosis is only referred to when skin abnormalities are visible and palpable (itch). In the Netherlands an average of 31 per 1000 patients per year go to the doctor and the registrations are increasing (Van de Lisdonk EH, Van den Bosch WJHM, Huygen FJA, Lagro-Janssen ALM. Diseases in general practice. 3rd dr. Maarssen: Elsevier Healthcare , 2003). It is striking that the number of registered diagnoses in children between 5 and 14 years is the lowest, while in this group the registered diagnoses in warts (HPV infections) are relatively high. In almost half of all cases it is a fungal infection of the feet.
Fungal nails (onychomycosis) arise because fungi or yeasts settle under the nail plate. The fungi and yeasts find their way through the free nail edge or the lateral nail edges that have a much softer structure of keratin. The nail usually continues to grow, but the infection becomes visible through color and structure change of the nail and at a later stage the nails often become thicker and the nail may even come loose (onycholysis). An onychomycosis almost never heals spontaneously (Van Vloten WA, Degreef HJ, Stolz E, Vermeer BJ, Willemze R. Dermatology and venereology. 3rd revised Dr. Maarssen: Elsevier Healthcare, 2000).
Fungal skin treatment
Both in literature and in folk medicine it is known that heat or heat can be used against infections. This also applies to yeast and fungal infections of the skin. Yeasts multiply by cell division and fungi by forming spores. At higher (fever) temperatures, yeast cells (such as Malassezia) will not survive, especially if they are applied by a sudden increase in temperature. Fungi (such as Candida) multiply by forming spores. The fungi themselves are not resistant to high (fever) temperatures, so heat treatment will kill the fungi themselves. High temperatures do (often) stimulate the formation of tracks and, moreover, tracks are relatively insensitive to those high temperatures. Regularity is therefore essential in the treatment of fungi in particular. After all, killing the fungi is accompanied by the formation of spores. At a subsequent treatment session, therefore, the spores formed in the previous session, which will form the first young fungi, will have to be heated before they will start to form new spores so that the fungus will be eradicated after a number of treatments (Zeuthen, Marie L. and Howard, Dexter H., Thermotolerance and the Heat-shock Response in Candida albicuns, Journal of General Microbiology (1989), 135, 2509-2518) & Levine MD, Norman, Rothschild MD James G. (1991), Treatment or Mycobacterium chelonae infection with controlled localized heating. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (Volume 24, Issue 5, Part 2, May 1991, Pages 867-870)
Treatment of fungal nails
The recent emergence of laser treatment of fungal infections of nails (onychomycosis) is mainly based on the heating of the infected nail bed, thereby combating the fungus (see How to treat fungal nails). Combating fungi in the nail bed is similar to combating skin fungi, but with fungal nails, the infected area is difficult to access. The number of treatments and the duration of treatment will therefore be much longer than with the treatment of skin fungi. In addition, a normal nail needs between 6 and 9 months to grow (Kalodasidis, Kostas et al., The Effect or Q-Switched Nd: YAG 1064 nm / 532 nm Laser in the Treatment of Onychomycosis In Vivo, Clinical Study Hindawi Publishing Corporation Dermatology Research and Practice Vol 2013, Article ID 379725 & Paasch, Uwe et al., Heat profiles or laser irradiated nails, Journal of Biomedical Optics 19 (1), 018001 (2014)).
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Question: What do I do if the use of Papiopad heat compresses on the skin is painful?
Answer: If heating is painful, the supplied cover can be slid around the Papiopad compress. The temperature on the skin will now be lower. Do not continue if the pain does not disappear. Look at Too hot? For more information.
Question: Why does it take several months before the wart is gone?
Answer: The skin tissue of the wart must be replaced by healthy skin. The skin renews itself continuously and replaces itself completely within two months.
Question: Are warts contagious?
Answer: Yes. Warts are caused by a virus infection of the skin. The wart always secretes viruses in the dander coming from the wart.
Question: Are water warts contagious?
Answer: Yes. Water warts are also caused by a virus infection of the skin. The water wart secretes viruses in the wart’s pus.
Question: I have many (water) warts. Do I have to treat every wart?
Answer: You do not always have to treat every (water) wart. If you treat the largest or most annoying wart (s) with Papiopad, then all warts often disappear. Remaining warts can be treated again with Papiopad.
Question: Can I also treat steel warts with Papiopad heat compresses?
Answer: Steel warts are not real warts, because they are not caused by a virus. Treating steel warts with Papiopad heat compresses is not recommended.
Question: If a Papiopad heat compress gets a leak, is that dangerous?
Answer: No. The Papiopad heat compresses contain a non-toxic saline solution. Rinse the salt with water. The broken Papiopad heat compress can be disposed of with the household waste.