Psoriasis is a skin condition in which dry and scaly patches appear on the skin. It is commonly believed that psoriasis is a genetic disorder which is caused by disturbance in the normal way of working of immune system and this disturbance causes overgrowth of skin cells so quickly. The normal period of production and replacement of these skin cells is 20-28 days which is changed to 2-6 days in psoriasis patients.
Nail Psoriasis is the same condition but it specifically refers to the nails. It is not contagious disease but it is hereditary and involves nails, skin and joints. Those with psoriasis are likely to have nail psoriasis as well in most of the cases. In this particular condition, both finger and toe nails might be affected with psoriasis. In some cases, it is also reported that nail psoriasis patients may also get affected with psoriatic arthritis.
Nail Psoriasis Causes
In this condition, the soft nail area under the solid part gets affected with it and is called nail bed psoriasis. The researches show that the majority of the people affected with psoriasis, inherited this condition from their ancestors. Studies show that up to 70% of the psoriasis patients are affected with this skin disease because their parents had the same condition in their lives. Nail psoriasis can be found in both men and women.
How to Cure Nail Psoriasis
How to cure nail psoriasis? This question is quite difficult to be answered as unfortunately, you may not be able to find a complete cure to eliminate nail psoriasis. However, you can still use some treatment for nail psoriasis which can help you improving the appearance of the affected nail area. There are various ways to treat nail psoriasis including surgical and medical and some of them are mentioned below;
- If you visit a doctor, he can suggest you the application of steroid cream on the affected area to reduce or kill the inflammation.
- Secondly, you may also take the injection of steroid medication in the affected nail area but people usually avoid this because of the pain they have to bear during injecting SM.
- PUVA or UVB light therapy can also be used for treating nail psoriasis.
- In case someone has psoriatic arthritis along with nail psoriasis, the physician will prefer to use methotrexate which is effective in treating a number of other skin problems.
- In case of severe and uncontrollable nail psoriasis, there is only one choice left and that is the complete removal of the affected nails. This is usually performed by an expert physician who uses some kind of ointment which dissolves the nails in less than a week. Because the nails are dissolved, it does not cause bleeding or pain.
- Another technique to get rid of the nail changes in psoriasis is to remove it surgically. This technique is usually preferred by those who want to see the growth of new tissues after the removal of the affected nails.