Biting Your Nails: What Are the Risks?

Onychophagia is characterized by thecompulsive urge to bite one's nails, often leading to tissue damage to the nails, cuticles, and surrounding skin. This can range from occasional mild behavior to deep self-mutilation. It typically involves the soft tissues surrounding the nail, the cuticle, as well as the nail itself. Common among children and young adults, it occurs in 20 to 33% of children and nearly 45% of teenagers.

This functional habit is typically not observed before the age of 3 or 4 years. Most cases of nail biting begin in early childhood, between 4 and 6 years, and stabilize from 7 to 10 years before intensifying in adolescence with the onset of puberty. However, in many cases, this behavior most often decreases with age: it spontaneously and completely stops at the end of adolescence or the beginning of adulthood.

Adults can also fall victim to this, particularly after experiencing high stress at work, undergoing a traumatic event (such as divorce, death, etc.), or in cases of withdrawal (from tobacco, alcohol, etc.). It has also been observed that boys significantly outnumber girls in nail-biting.

The reason why some individuals develop this particular habit or not is not entirely clear and understood. However, the need to bite one's nails is generally associated with a psycho-emotional state of anxiety due to the self-soothing effect it provides afterward. It is seen as a reflex of emotional imbalances : a reaction to stress, fear, or excessive depression. Our emotional makeup (shyness, low self-esteem) also plays an integral part in why we turn to nail-biting.

Onychophagia also has a strong correlation with personality. Thus, some impatient individuals or those prone to frustrations often bite their nails frenziedly to channel their excess energy and regulate their emotions. This behavior can also occur in an attempt to imitate someone, especially observed in children.

Biting your nails can lead to a number of consequences that should not be overlooked.

• Dental Anomalies: Non-physiological mechanical forces acting on the teeth can cause enamel abrasion. One can also observe a rotation and small fractures on the incisive edges of the mandibular incisors (lower front teeth), as well as a displacement of the maxillary incisors (upper front teeth). However, if this persists, nail-biting can also cause a misalignment between the upper dental arch and the lower dental arch (dental malocclusion), due to the pressures exerted.

• Oral Afflictions: If your nails are infected (onychomycosis, paronychia) and you bite them, not forgetting that nails are a fertile ground for the development of microorganisms, these can be transmitted from your fingers to your oral cavity. This can then cause an infection (herpes, gum inflammation, etc.). By biting your nails, it is also possible to be infected by pinworms, tapeworms, staphylococcus, salmonella, E. coli and human papillomavirus.

• Nail Damage: Initially, the damage caused to the nail plate is minimal, but over time, as the habit strengthens, we can observe a deformation and weakening of the nail plate, as well as wounds and bleeding on the fingers. The hands of a person suffering from onychophagy no longer appear aesthetic. This can be a cause of embarrassment and sometimes even social withdrawal, which intensifies stress and a number of other negative emotions, becoming the reason for the persistence of the habit.

• Gastrointestinal Infections: Nail biting, being a carrier of microorganisms, can transmit harmful pathogens into the body. Indeed, swallowing bitten nails can pose a risk of gastric or intestinal infection. Consequently, we are threatened by a inflammation of the intestines, liver, and stomach, which can manifest itself, for example, through diarrhea or acute abdominal pain.

• Nail Infections: Chronic nail biting can also make you susceptible to various types of infections (onychomycosis, paronychia). You create a cycle of transmitting bacteria, fungi, or viruses from your mouth to your fingers, and vice versa. Indeed, nails provide a conducive environment for the growth and proliferation of potential pathogens. Thus, by biting your nails and cuticles, you are giving free access to all microorganisms.

  They can penetrate through cuts, and consequently, cause damage (pain, irritation, redness, purulent wounds, etc.) to the surrounding skin, as well as to the nail plate. Similarly, a person who bites their nails and suffers from oral herpes can develop herpetic whitlow on the bitten finger. Moreover, once the infection reaches the fingertips, it can spread to other parts of the body.

For these various reasons, it is therefore crucial to take measures to gradually correct this habit.

Anecdote : A positive aspect of nail-biting is that it does not delay nail growth. On the contrary, it increases nail growth, perhaps because frequent manipulation of the nail stimulates blood circulation in the nail root.

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