i was born with skin covering most of the toenail sealing them in. I could dig under the flesh with one of those fine scissors to cut away at the toenail, but that never solved the issue. It was obvious even to a child like myself that i needed to have a large portion of the skin removed so the toenail could grow out properly. My parents took me to see the doctors about it several times and they just kept saying to "let it grow out". 16-18 years later i finally had enough of the constant pain/infection/mess and decided to do some surgery myself.
I actually just did a lot of searching trying to find a good graphical representation of what i'm talking about, as it wasn't an ordinary ingrown toenail.
I ended up coming upon a photo and surgical video that shows very similarly what i had to do. It's extremely graphic and nsfw. I'm going to link it.
Do not click these links, graphic medical images
seriously, do not click unless you have a very strong stomach.