Tazorac Healing Her Nail P
from Dxalic

Hi Ed:  I read your files but this is the first time I'm writing.  I am blessed with a compassionate doctor because her sister has psoriasis and this is why she became a derm.  I have really bad nail p.  Recently my doctor told me to use Tazorac  (in gel form, the cream stings like a thousand bees) and apply it to the inside of the nail because some patients have seen some improvement.  I tried it on the nail where my first experience with nail p started, my left pinky.  After one week it stopped hurting, but the surrounding skin was extremely dry, crackly and flaky.  I continued my self-experiment and noticed by the end of second week my nail was growing back and started looking normal again.  Just to make sure I wasn't having a placebo affect, I showed my mom my hand and asked her if she noticed anything different. She pointed to my pinky and told me it was looking a little healthier.  So I am continuing my experiment on the rest of my fingers.  What I am doing now is soaking my hands to soften some of the crud between my nail and nail bed, I use a thin nail file and scrape it out, I took the Tazorac and put it into one of those bottles you dye your hair with (it has a long plastic needle nose) any try to stick it right into the nail, making sure it doesn't spill much over my fingertips (this spillover causes the cracking and flaking) and of course this is the last thing I do before putting on some cotton gloves at nighttime only. 

I wanted to share this because all of us with nail P, or any P, are very unique and not all works for everyone.  But it is working for me.  My inflammation has diminished and even though I still wear gloves 24 hrs a day, I can, sometimes, during my working day take off my gloves and I’m starting to like what I see.  I don't know how long it will last, but I'll keep you posted.  Thanks so much for your web site. –Dxalic

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Ed’s Response:  Thanks for sharing your process with us, Dxalic (I wonder how that’s pronounced? Dix-alec?).  Tazorac is commonly prescribed for nail P and, one would suspect, this is because a lot of people find it effective.  The one caution always in order for people trying various therapies to improve their nail P:  Be patient.  Unlike P lesions on our skin — where we’re trying to stop something that’s happening very fast and, if its successful, results are obvious quickly — nails grow slowly, are corrupted sometimes quickly by P, and are slow to get over the corruption. 

Even when the psoriasis may be effecting the nail bed, the corruption this creates on the surface of the nail (making it warp or pitting it, for example) will linger long after the subsurface P activity has slowed or stopped.  The effected nail must be replaced by new nail tissue coming from the matrix (beneath the cuticle) and this happens only as fast as your nail grows.  We can usually see the healthy nail emerge from the cuticle and slowly — ever so slowly — push the old corrupted nail out until its eventually all clipped, filed or chewed away. Don't bite your nails! -Ed

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