Onychomycosis or a fungal infection of the toenails is an extremely common problem. The infection causes the toenail to become discoloured and break up. Almost always the condition is not painful, but does cause a lot o embarrassment for the person with the infection as it looks very unattractive. The main risk factors for this infection are the dark moist environment that exists within footwear. The bugs love this environment and thrive in it. There are many treatments available for onychomycosis. The most common are a variety of topical agents and also widely used are some oral prescription drugs. Both types of treatment need to be taken or used for at least six months as the nail grows out with the infected tissue. With all treatments there is a high probably of it happening again due to the foot being placed back in the shoe which is the exact environment that increased the risk for it in the first place. Strategies need to be put in place to make sure that the environment of the shoe is not conducive to the infection.

Due to the problems with the traditional approaches there has been a lot of recent interest in the use of laser therapy for this condition. The laser is supposed to directly kill the infecting fungi with one treatment. It is then a matter of time to wait as the nail grows out to see if it is effective. The machine for this has been approved by the Federal Drug Administration as safe. This safety approval is being used by operators as some sort of endorsement of the treatment approach. There is no published research on clinical trials as to if the approach is more or less effective than the current treatments, despite claims made about how effective the method is by those who are promoting it. There are claims made by the manufactures about the successful treatment of a small number of people, but it is not known if this was compared to a control group or compared to another of the standard widely used treatments.

Currently no insurance companies are covering the treatment and it is expensive for the treatment. Until some independent clinical trials are published to verify or not the claims by those marketing the laser therapy, it is probably better to approach this treatment with a certain amount of scepticism. It may well be that the treatment is effective, but there is simply no evidence either way at the current point in time.