Is Eating Your Nails Bad

Biting your nails is a very unhealthy habit

5 reasons to stop biting your nails

You know it'south a bad habit, but did you know that it can as well make you sick?

December 9, 2016

Many people have nervous habits, such equally pacing or fidgeting, and although many are harmless, if yous bite your nails when you lot're stressed or anxious, yous are really at take chances for some ailments. Texas A&G Academy Health Science Eye experts offering five reasons why you lot should boot this habit.

Your nails pack a lot of dirt

There are a lot of germs under your fingernails

Even if you wash your easily frequently, its hard to go all the germs and dirt from under your nails. So just imagine what you're exposing your trunk to whenever you lot requite these germs and dirt free admission to your mouth. Yuck.

One time the germs that were under your fingernails get into your trunk, your chances of illness increment significantly. Be certain to wash your hands thoroughly and pay extra attending to your nails.

You can spread infection from nail to nail

It increases adventure of infection

Biting your nails increases the risk of paronychia, an infection of the boom. Symptoms of paronychia include a painful, carmine, swollen area around the boom, oftentimes at the cuticle or at the site of a hangnail or other injury. If the infection is bacterial, there may be pus-filled blisters at the site.

Too, if you chew on nails that accept warts—which are acquired by a virus—and so chew on other nails, this can cause warts to spread to other areas.

Nail biting is also bad for your pearly whites

It's bad for your teeth

It's non recommended to use your teeth as tools, apart from chewing your nutrient. Regularly biting your nails tin can cause your teeth to shift out of place, which tin can require correctional braces or a servant. Boom biting could also cause your teeth to pause or could damage your molar enamel. The germs could too potentially infect, or cause irritation, to your gums.

Besides, the leaner that is on your fingers or nails tin can linger in your mouth and crusade halitosis, or bad jiff.

Hangnails can lead to infection

You can have more hangnails or ingrown nails

If you constantly seize with teeth at your nails, chances are you'll bite off a bit more you lot expected, and when a piece of torn skin at the root of your nail appears, that's a hangnail. Hangnails are open sores that tin easily become infected. The all-time manner to avoid the painful sores is to prevent the hangnail from forming in the first place past moisturizing regularly—and non chewing on your fingers.

Most ingrown nails occur on the toenails, but bitter your nails can cause your nails to grow under your skin in your fingers also. Ingrown nails can crusade pain and swelling and potentially lead to infection and require surgery.

If you paint your nails, those may not be safe to put in your mouth

There's a risk of toxic poisoning

If gel polishes are your thing, it's best that you kicking the smash-biting habit sooner rather than later. Regular blast polishes have plenty of toxins themselves, but gel polishes accept chemicals that can exist harmful when ingested. Although the low amounts of toxicity likely won't show any harmful effects right away, we don't yet understand all of the potential long-term consequences.