Or you could soak it in prescription strength urea for a couple of days to get the nail to fall off. Less collateral damage that way.

OP might be talking about a procedure where a podiatrist or dermatologist kills the mis-growing edges of the nail root. The remaining root grows a narrower nail, but hopefully a straighter one. Sometimes the process doesn’t work the first time (hard to judge how much cell-kill stuff will get just the edges and not damage the middle) and has to be repeated.

Different people and relationships can have different solutions that work for them. That’s OK!