What is causing nail fold pain?
I occasionally experience tenderness and sometimes throbbing pain at the *corner* of my nail folds. It’s only ever at the top corners or just a little down the nail fold. Never on the rounded bottom part near the cuticle. As you can see it looks slightly red on the corner of the nail that is painful. But only ever so slightly - you can hardly tell.
I have been trying to no avail to figure out what is the actual cause. Can’t tell if it’s using harsh soaps or washing my hands too much that’s causing it, or dry skin, or nail trauma, or hang nails? My nails do tend to rip or break pretty easily, and if that happens I have a tendency to pull off the rest of the nail if I don’t have nail clippers handy. I also get hard, stiff hang nails that sometimes stick up along the nail fold that I have to trim.
Any thoughts? Also any suggestions on what I can do to (A) prevent this and (B) help it heal? It really hurts and is super annoying!