What causes and how can I treat or prevent this toe nail pain?

I had a similar problem a few months ago. A podiatrist advised me to soak it in warm water with Epson Salts and buy sneakers with more toe room. Took a few weeks but the pain finally went away. Good luck.

Your toe nail has no nerves, so that’s not the problem. It’s under the nail that you need to look at.

Could definitely be the shoes. I had been a 10 since high school.but about 10 years ago noticed that my feet were bothering me. I solved the problem by going to a 10.5 and this year when the same thing occurred I bumped up to an 11 and am much happier now. When I used to run I found that I needed a shoe with a wider toe-box so whereas Nike would work for most of the people I ran with, for me they were always too narrow.

I had an ingrown toenail worked on several years ago and several months later lost the toenail hiking. When it grew back it developed a fungus under the nail and no matter what I tried I could not shake it. It was always discolored, did not seem attached right under the nail and I would lose the nail at least once a year after a week of hiking. It was immediately after losing the nail last time that I switched to a size 11 shoe and, perhaps coincidentally but I don’t think so, the nail is growing back and seems to be looking like a normal non-fungally infected nail. I am hopeful.
Take a good look at your shoes.

Try a wider shoe, or one size bigger to give them tootsies more wiggle room!

All the above is excellent advice. Pachy’s Epsom Salt treatment is cheap, relaxing, effective and an ancient cure-all. Epsom Salts is simply the popular trade name for salts of magnesium.

Stop wearing those favorite shoes immediately if you haven’t already done so. Due to the weight your feet have had to bear over the decades, they flatten, making them both a bit wider and longer which makes rojo’s and kritiper’s advice to buy larger shoes sensible.

The infantries of the world, by necessity, are probably the best experts on foot care and I would look to their manuals on the subject for good advice. The US Marines during WWII advised their enlisted men to cut a small “V” into the center of each big toe’s nail in order to avoid hangnail. It causes the nail to grow toward the center and away from the cuticle (and I imagine it might have been a nice talisman for a 19 year-old to have just before facing tremendous, raking enemy machine gun and mortar fire on some bomb-cratered beach in the South Pacific—carrying with him the “V” for Victory). The “V” is barely noticeable as the nail is only about millimeter long after cutting. My father, a former Marine of that era, passed this on to me when I was experiencing a sore toe when I entered high school football. I’ve never had that problem again in the subsequent 47 years. My Swedish wife called them my “devil toes”—my cloven hooves.

I have this trouble if I have not trimmed my toenails in a while. Keeping them trimmed makes it so my shoes aren’t pushing on the nail all day.

You may have bruised the nail or some swelling under the nail. Not enough to call discoloration but enough to make it sensitive. My toe gets the same way because the very edge of my nail where it is attached to the toe, (not the white part you clip off) is even with the fleshy end of my toe, so it is easy for my shoes to tap my nail repeatedly, especially if I have a little nail growth over the edge. Then my nail is sore for days. I have to keep it trimmed all the way down.
With time it will give me an ingrown nail. It looks ok on top, but I have to clip it deep down on the sides. I think @Pachy recommendation about epson salt is right on. If you don’t have any, than try witch hazel. Both are great for relieving any swelling.

Ya’ll are awesome though I’m not sure I can look under my toenail :P @Adirondackwannabe

The Epsom salt thing is soothing and its already starting to feel better the shoes are just a fond memory

Laughs, you can’t see through the nail silly. But I’m saying the problems are below the nail.