Laser eye surgery has enabled millions of people to throw away their eyeglasses. Now several medical technology companies are hoping that lasers aimed at the feet will allow millions to take their socks off, even in public.

The target is toenail fungus — an infection in an estimated 10 percent of American adults, or 23 million people — that causes toenails to become thick, yellow and fetid.

If these lasers, which recently completed small clinical trials, work, they will represent a new way to treat nail infection by selectively irradiating fungi while leaving the nail and surrounding tissue intact.

Right now, there is no sure cure. The fungi are so hardy that popular antifungal pills, which carry a small risk of liver damage, are completely successful less than half of the time. And a prescription lacquer, painted on the toenails daily for 48 weeks, has a complete cure rate of less than 10 percent.

Pharmaceutical giants like Schering-Plough and Novartis are developing new lacquers, pills and ointments to battle the fungi. But some podiatrists and patients are pinning their hopes on the experimental laser treatments.

Nomir Medical Technologies in Waltham, Mass., is developing a laser called Noveon for diseases like antibiotic-resistant staph infections as well as nail afflictions.

Read full story via NYTimes.com.