Reasons to stop biting your nails: About half of all kids and teens bite their nails. Many don’t grow out of it, either. If you’re an adult who bites your nails, you may have done it when you were younger and just never stopped.
Sometimes, nail biting can be a sign of emotional or mental stress. It tends to show up in people who are nervous, anxious or feeling down. It’s a way to cope with these feelings.
Many people have nervous habits, such as pacing or fidgeting, and although many are harmless, if you bite your nails when you’re stressed or anxious, you are actually at risk for some ailments.
There are many health reasons to stop biting your nails to the curb health danger. It’s also a juvenile habit because people won’t take you seriously when you’re constantly biting your nails.
Picture how it looks when you’re in a meeting with a board of directors and you subconsciously start chewing on your nails.
Reasons To Stop Biting Your Nails
1. It can harm your teeth
It’s not recommended to use your teeth as tools, apart from chewing your food. Regularly biting your nails can cause your teeth to shift out of place, which can require correctional braces or a retainer.
Nail biting could also cause your teeth to break or could damage your tooth enamel. The germs could also potentially infect, or cause irritation, to your gums.
2. Nails are filled with bacteria
It’s not a hygienic habit because nails are very dirty. They might look clean but in real sense, they’re filled with a lot of microorganisms. This is very risky especially now that we’re dealing with an epidemic.
One of the health measures recommended is to avoid the habit because it’s risky when you accidentally put your finger in your mouth and you haven’t washed your hands properly. That’s the fastest way to diarrhea and vomits yourself to hospital.
3. You can get dental problems
Germs can easily transfer from your nails to your mouth. The bacteria buildup causes bad breath and gum disease as well. In the long run, corroded teeth are also something you’ll deal with because the biting chips away the protective layers. It causes hangnails or ingrown nails.
If you constantly bite at your nails, chances is you’ll bite off a bit more than you expected, and when a piece of torn skin at the root of your nail appears, that’s a hangnail.
Hangnails are open sores that can easily become infected. The best way to avoid the painful sores is to prevent the hangnail from forming in the first place by moisturizing regularly—and not chewing on your fingers.
Most ingrown nails occur on the toenails, but biting your nails can cause your nails to grow under your skin in your fingers too. Ingrown nails can cause pain and swelling and potentially lead to infection and require surgery.
4. Teeth grinding.
Unfortunately, if you regularly bite your nails you are also susceptible to grinding your teeth at night, which can lead to serious dental damage and eventually tooth loss.
5. Nail varnish is poison.
If you put nail varnish on your nails and bite them you are exposing yourself to formaldehyde, not a chemical you want to digest. It’s poison!
6. Nail biting is a habit associated with nerves and boredom.
Studies show nail biting is indicative of boredom or emotional stress. The more nail biters engage in social interaction, recognize their stress and are told not to bite their nails, the less likely they are to do it.
7. You could get a skin infection
If you chew a little too hard, you might end up leaving open sores on your fingertips. Since we use our hands for everything, germs will get into the sores, causing an infection. It’s not pretty to have puss filled blisters on your fingers because of nail biting.
8. It destroys your nails
Biting your nails stunts their growth to a large extent. They’re quickly chopped down the minute they try to grow and thrive. The chomps will cause them to grow irregularly and that damage might one day be irreversible.
You might have to kiss your chance of growing healthy nails goodbye if this habit continues
9. Rick to toxic poisoning
If gel polishes are your thing, it’s best that you kick the nail-biting habit sooner rather than later. Regular nail polishes have plenty of toxins themselves, but gel polishes have chemicals that can be 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.
How To Stop Biting Your Nails:
You need to let go of nails biting. To let go of nails biting follow this tips:
1. Find out what triggers the habit
Doing a self-assessment might help you realize why you’re constantly biting your nails. It’s often a sign of anxiety and other disorders which mean you need to deal with the underlying issues as a step towards quitting.
2. Wear gloves
It may sound silly, but if you can’t get to your nails, you can’t bite them. If gloves won’t work for your daily schedule, you can look for stickers made to cover nails — they can have the same effect.
3. Find your triggers
Notice how you feel or what you’re doing when you bite your nails. Once you know what kicks you into nail-biting drive, you can try to find other ways to cope.
4. Use anti-biting polish
This has a nasty taste which will immediately remind you to avoid chewing on your nails. The polish is clear and people won’t notice that you’ve applied anything.
5. Keep your hands or mouth busy.
Find something to fiddle with — a stress ball, a worry stone, or even a pen to click. Chew gum so your mouth has a job. Give your nail-biting energy another place to go.
6. Apply chilli powder
If you’re not comfortable with polish, chili is another alternative to quitting. Just don’t rub your eyes when you’ve applied the powder. Or better still, maybe that’s the painful reminder you need to help you stop.
7. Cut them short
If there’s not enough nail to grab with your teeth, it won’t feel as satisfying when you give biting a try.
8. Coat them with a bad taste
There are special nail polishes with a bitter flavor you can paint on your nails. The terrible taste will make you think twice before chewing.
