The following symptoms indicate that you have an ingrown toenail:

• Pain and tenderness in the toe along the side or both sides of the nail
• Swelling of your toe around the nail
• Redness around the toenail
• Infection of the tissue around your toenail

Once more, these are some of the prevailing causes of an ingrown toenail:

• Cutting toenails too short or not straight across
• Deformities of the toes
• Injury
• Having abnormally curved toenails
• Subungual exostosis (outgrowth of bone from the toe tip)
• Use of isotretinoin in the treatment of severe acne
• shoes that crowd the toenails, like heels or too tight shoes

According to experts, wider nails fold and flatter ones raise the risk of ingrown toenails. Therefore, one study conducted on 46 people showed that there was no difference in the anatomic shape of toenails in patients who have or not have ingrown toenails.