Since currently more than 20% of the world's population is infected with fungus on the feet and sometimes on the hands, many know how unpleasant this disease is and what consequences it has. However, not everyone is familiar with information about what microorganisms cause this disease and what types of nail fungus exist.
In addition to the forms of the disease, its specific characteristics and treatment methods, it would be useful to know how many different types of fungi cause destruction of nails and damage to different areas of the feet and hands.
Causes of the disease and its symptoms.
With the causes of the disease, everything can be quite complicated, since a person easily becomes infected with a fungus, both due to the weakness of his body, and due to the fact that he is exposed to constant contact with infected people or objects.
At the moment, the main causes of the disease are the following:
- Visit public saunas, showers and swimming pools;
- Increased sweating of the feet;
- Using someone else's shoes or hygiene products;
- Weak immunity, etc.
Manifestations of the fungus in the affected areas include the following symptoms:
- Formation of scales on the skin of the feet and nails;
- Skin peeling and itching;
- Appearance of cracks;
- Thickening of the skin and infected nails;
- Changes in nail color;
- Destruction of the nail structure.
Important!
In any case, toenail fungus and any other form of its manifestation causes a lot of problems, and therefore it is worth addressing the prevention and treatment of the disease in a timely manner.
Forms and types of disease.
In this case, everything is quite complicated, since the types of fungal nail diseases are distributed according to several criteria.
The classification is as follows:
- Depending on the depth of penetration and location of the fungus;
- Depending on the size of the nail thickening;
- By type of pathogen;
- By stage of development (early, second, advanced).
If we take the type of pathogens as an example, then in this case the patient will have to study the Latin names for a long time, so it is not worth delving too deeply into unnecessary information with the names, it is better to understand in detail the manifestations of nail fungus and how all this is reflected in the nail plates.
Classification by depth of penetration and location on the nail.
At the same time, the forms of the disease are divided into the following points:
- Distal. This type of onychomycosis appears in the extreme part of the nail (free), and is characterized by a change in color and the beginning of delamination with destruction of the structure. Furthermore, the spot begins to grow in size;
- Side. The main signs are similar to the previous form, but the nail color changes on one or both sides of the nail;
- White surface. This form of fungus is expressed by the appearance of various spots on the nail, which ultimately leads to its complete destruction;
- Proximal. The disease originates in the cuticle (it becomes inflamed) and little by little it spreads to the entire nail, destroying it;
- Total onychomycosis. The color of the entire nail plate changes, which leads to faster destruction.
Classification according to the size of the nail thickening.
This classification has only 3 forms, which allows us to separate the levels of compaction to which a nail infected with fungus succumbs.
In this case it is:
- Normotrophic form. With this form of the disease, separate foci of the disease appear on the nail, which have a slightly different color. The thickness of the nail does not change;
- Hypertrophic form. The nail begins to thicken, changes color, becomes deformed, gradually collapses and it is no longer as comfortable for the person to walk;
- Onycholytic. In this form, nail fungus provokes detachment of the layer of the finger, and if you delay the treatment, bringing everything to such a point, you do not have to think about saving the nail.
Of course, the types of toenail fungus are distributed depending on the pathogen. There are three main types of microorganisms, but they have their own varieties.
Classification by type of pathogen.
In this case, three types of pathogens can be distinguished, each of which has its own subspecies. It is worth noting that these microorganisms can also manifest on the hands, but as hand hygiene is more common, this happens less frequently.
The distribution looks like this:
- Mold. This is one of the simplest forms of fungus because the mold cannot penetrate deeply into the affected area. However, manifestations on the toenails are still possible. The main signs are a color change, ranging from black to green. Occasionally spots of the same color may appear on the skin of the fingers. There are more than 5 types of mold;
- dermatophyte. There are 3 main pathogens that cause more severe symptoms. Gray and yellow stripes appear, nail detachment and, what is worse, microorganisms of this type are capable of infecting the entire foot;
- yeast fungus. This fungus is well known because it belongs to the genus Candida, which is also responsible for the development of thrush. The characteristics of the symptoms when infected with such a fungus are a decrease in the thickness of the nail, a change in color to gray, detachment and damage to the finger, up to its inflammation.
It is worth noting that due to the presence of subspecies, only a specialist will be able to prescribe the correct drugs for the fungus, independent selection of remedies will be simply useless.
Finally
Some experts identify other forms of the disease, taking into account the manifestations of the disease on the hands, however, guided by the types known to science, you can understand what kind of fungus it is by observing the symptoms that appear.
But this does not mean at all that you can self-medicate in this way, since there are other diseases that cause a change in the color of the nail, as well as its peeling. For this reason, if nail fungus suddenly appears, you should immediately go to a doctor, for example a dermatologist, and take a comprehensive approach to solving this problem.