Nail fungus are probably amongst the most common of all nail infections, and perhaps as a result of this commonness, people have come to start seeing them even where they are not present. Indeed, we have a situation where a person suffering from any form of nail disfigurement is likely to start blaming their woes on nail-fungus, even where the cause of their nail disfigurement is not nail fungus.
Now the problem with this trend where people mistake other infections for fungus is that they can lead to a situation where a person ends up treating the wrong infection (like where a person ends up being afflicted of another nail infection, while still insisting on seeking treatment for fungus). For this reason then, it becomes necessary to have a way of differentiating nail-fungus from other nail infections, so that when one is really faced with the nail fungus, they can be certain that is the case – and seek the appropriate treatment for it.
Now the way to differentiate fungus from other nail infections is being aware of the symptoms that are unique to the nail fungus infections (and which are absent from other types of nail infections). Keeping this in mind can help you in differentiating what is likely to be a case of ‘real’ fungus from what could be another type of nail infection, presenting itself in a manner akin to that of nail-fungus.
One of the main symptoms of fungus is of course the thickening of the nails (mostly on the toes, but sometimes also on the nails on the fingers). It is important to take note, though, that nail fungus is not the only infection that causes nail thickening, so that not every case of thickened nails should be attributed to fungus. In other words, nail thickening has to present alongside other symptoms of nail fungus for a proper nail-fungus diagnosis to be made.
Another one of those main symptoms of fungus is that of the infected nails becoming crumby (so you have powder coming out of them) when they are rubbed, and which often lead to the nails becoming brittle…so that they can break like glass when subjected to pressure. Again, it is not only nail fungus that cause nails to become crumby and brittle, but where this brittleness and crumby-ness presents alongside another symptom like thickening of the nails, then it is indeed likely that you are looking at a case of nail fungus. Nonetheless, there is still a possibility of nail thickening presenting alongside nail brittleness and crumby-ness, and it still not being a case of fungus, hence the need to explore even further symptoms of the said nail-fungus.
Other symptoms that could help in differentiating fungus from other types of infections include the likes of complete nail disfigurement (usually when the infection goes untreated for quite a long time), loss of the nail’s sheen and darkening of the nail…and where any of these is observed alongside nail thickening, crumby-ness or brittleness, then there is the very strong possibility of it being a case of nail fungus you would be looking at.
