Anesthetic is almost as bad, imo. They stick a needle in your toe 3-4 times and you feel every bit of that. Felt and looked like the doc stuck the needle in from the tip of the toe all the way to the nail bed.

The next time I had them rub a topical anesthetic in before they stuck the needle in and that helped a lot but it still hurt.

My plebe year at USNA my big toe nail split because I was issued boots that were too small. Instead of going to sick call like I should have, I went down to the football team doctor to look at them because I figured that he would take better care if me even if I was only a freshman bench warmer. Big mistake. He took a pair of scissors with a flat tip and just shoved them under the nail to cut off the outside half of the nail. I thought I was going to break off the part of the table I was gripping it hurt so much.

Toes are the worst.