The key with safe nail care is not cutting your nails too short. That's it in a nutshell.  In clinic we treat each patient's nails depending on their history, medication, nail shape / thickness and predisposition towards ingrowing toenails.  At home however two general rules can be applied safely across the board. 

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(Once you've washed your hands.....)

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1. Cut - or indeed file - the nail to follow the general shape of the end of the toe.

This means that there will be a slight curve across the end of the nail. We don't

want the nail to be cut dead-straight because this will lead to each nail having

two sharp corners that could cause issues of their own.

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2. Leave a line of white nail.

If you cut all the white / lighter coloured nail at the growing edge away you risk cutting yourself.

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DO NOT'S:

DO NOT cut deeply into the corners of the nail (as this can lead to the flesh of the nail groove moving upwards and leading to an ingrowing toenail at a later date, and can also result in a spike of nail being left behind, which, again can lead to an ingrowing toenail as it grows forward).

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DO NOT cut a 'V' into the centre of the nail. This can cause you to cut the skin over the central nailbed, and risks introducing an infection underneath the nail.