Fingernail Diseases Nail Biters Need To Know About

I remember years ago hearing about a study showing that unwrapped mints in bowls at the front of restaurants showed traces of urine and feces on them. In other words people were sticking their unwashed hands in the bowls and grabbing candy and leaving contaminated mints behind for the next person. Yuck.

Nail biters and pickers don’t seem to spend a lot of time really thinking about what we’re doing when we stick our grubby fingers in our mouth to bite them. If we did, we’d have quit years ago, right?

What we don’t know can hurt us especially when it comes to diseases and bacteria on our hands, fingers and underneath the nails themselves. Bacteria that we introduce into our mouth every time we bite our nails.

Here are common fingernail infections and conditions we should be aware of, many of which require a visit to the doctor for clarification and diagnosis.

Nail Psoriasis

Nail psoriasis manifests itself itself with ridges, disintegration and disoloration of the nail among other side effects. You may also experience pitting of the nails which look like small pinpricks in your nail. Alternatively the fingernail may thicken so there are a wide variety of symptoms you might face that can make it tricky to diagnose.

For nail biters it can be even worse because you’re picking and biting nails that are already chipped and disintegrating in some cases which makes the situation worse and may hide the fact that you have nail psoriasis.

Your best bet is to visit your doctor and get it checked asap.

Nail Fungus

A fungal infection is a common ailment and the symptoms may resemble the ones found in nail psoriasis: nail discoloration with black, yellow, green or brown colors, disintegration, separation from the nail bed and more. As it gets worse, the symptoms typically get worse and spread. You may experience the infection in more than one finger. As with other infections, they often enter our body through a cut which nail biting and picking often assists with especially if you cut yourself to the point of bleeding.

A fingernail fungal infection may require oral drugs prescribed by your doctor or another method to get rid of it.

Paronychia

Paronychia is a fingernail infection that nail biters and pickers are usually familiar with even if we don’t know it. Ever had pain and slight reddening of swelling of a finger, usually at the side of a fingernail where the skin meets the edge of the nail? It’s probably paronychia.

Not to sound like a broken record but…when we bite and pick our nails we increase the chance of infection getting into a cut in the skin which we might have made ourselves through our biting and picking. And as we pick away, we run the risk of taking bacteria from one hand and infecting the other hand every time we pick and either getting it underneath the nail or in the skin.

In my experience when I was a nail biter, paronychia came on infrequently but when it did occur, it got worse for a day or so and then was gone within 4-5 days. In some cases you might need a doctor’s visit.

Beau lines

Beau lines involve deep horizontal ridges that can appear on finger or toenails which may be a symptom of a serious health concern. While iron deficiency is one possible reason, diabetes, kidney disease and other conditions might be present. Injury or effects of chemotherapy are other potential causes.

Then again nutritional deficiencies and a lack of vitamin A, B, B12 or keratin could also be the culprit. If the beau lines appear on one fingernail it may be due to a injury or something specific to that nail but multiple fingernails with beau lines can indicate something more systemic and serious.

This is one of those potential problems that also merits a visit to the doctor given the seriousness of some of the potential causes.

Koilonychia

Fingernails are normally convex and curve downwards at the sides. If you put a drop of water in the middle of your nail, it’ll probably roll off eventually given the curved shape. Koilonychia is a condition where the fingernail flattens and then becomes concave, sinks in the middle almost resembling a spoon. A drop of water may just sit there in the valley of your nail like it’s at the bottom of a spoon. Hence the condition is also referred to as spoon nails.

It is typically caused by an iron deficiency but that in and of itself may be caused by a number of other health-related issues outside of simply poor nutrition. Research suggests that koilonychia can also be caused by high altitude, trauma and being exposed to petroleum-based products. This is another condition that warrants a visit to the doctor to be sure.

Onychotillomania

Onychotillomania isn’t an infection per se but can lead to one. It is considered separate from onychophagia although it is generally grouped under the same overall heading. Onychotillomania is relevant to nail pickers and biters because that’s what it is: chronic and severe biting and picking of nails and skin to the point of causing damage to the nail bed often using instruments like scissors, razors or other sharp objects. While it’s considered uncommon by some, others suggest that it’s actually under reported and misdiagnosed. And because it’s considered self-harm, many people may simply deny it and not admit that they suffer from the condition.

Referred to as a habit-tic, medical attention including behavior therapy may be required to stop this self-harm condition.

Clubbing

No, this doesn’t refer to going to a club. Digital clubbing occurs when the fingertips (or toes) swell up like a bulb. Other symptoms include reddened finger tips, soft nail beds and downward curved nails. I’ve met a number of men and women with this condition over the years but didn’t actually realize it was a condition at the time. I just assumed it was natural and it was simply the regular shape of their fingers.

Digital clubbing is considered by the medical community to usually be asymptomatic but in other cases can be a symptom of a more serious condition. These conditions include lung cancer (common) but also lung disease, cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease and more. In that regard clubbing is often considered a predictor of the presence of a more serious illness. The medical community describes five different stages that clubbing can go through from mild to severe. As such, it is another condition that requires a doctor’s visit for diagnosis given the potential severity of an underlying condition.

Ingrown Nail

An ingrown nail is a painful disease where the edge of a fingernail grows into the skin. It typically happens on the toenails but can happen on fingernails too. While surgery is rare for ingrown nails as they tend to heal on their own, a visit to the doctor’s office might be in order if it doesn’t heal within a few days and if the pain gets worse.

If you have an ingrown nail, soak it in warm water to soften the nail and to help soothe it. To prevent ingrown nails in the future, properly cut and clip your nails and keep them trim. Round the edges of your nails and use a nail file rather than picking or biting your nails.

Green Nail Syndrome

Also known as chromonychia, as the name suggests it involves a green (and black) color disoloration of the fingernail. It usually manifests because of a bacterial infection and may occur if you frequently get your hands wet or are exposed to harsh chemicals ie. you are a plumber, dishwasher, swimmer, janitor, etc. When the fingernail partially separates from the nail bed, water and bacteria can enter which may lead to an infection. And as a nail biter or picker, you run the risk of cutting your skin which makes infection more likely.

Green nail syndrome often requires a doctor’s visit with antibiotics prescribed and in rare cases, the nail might need to be removed.

Warts

A wart is a skin growth caused by infection from the human papillomavirus (HPV) which causes all warts. When they occur on the fingernails or toenails, they’re referred to as periungual warts. They generally occur when the virus gets into your body through a cut so nail biters are at greater risk especially if you make your fingers bleed from nail biting. Warts may disappear on their own within months or years if you don’t treat them. Treatment with salicylic acid from a product from the chemist may help. You can also have warts frozen by a doctor with cryotherapy to get rid of them.

I once had a small wart grow on my right pointing finger directly where the edge of the nail meets the skin. Warts are contagious and we can easily pick them up by touching a surface that has the virus on it. It didn’t impact the growth of the fingernail but as a nail biter, if you have a wart and stick that finger in your mouth to bite that nail, you’re potentially introducing the virus into your gob.

I’ve always hated warts – I had another one on my right thumb and a third one on my right thumb pad at the same time – and eventually got all three of them frozen off with one cryotherapy treatment and haven’t had another one since.

Injuries

Not a disease per se but an injury – slamming your nail in the door, smacking it against something, losing the tip of your finger in a chainsaw – can damage the fingernail’s ability to grow properly possibly permanently in the case where you lose part of the finger. In that case, you may lose the nail too.

In the case of nail biters, a damaged nail is one that we tend to want to pick or bite to “fix” it so this then lead to a more serious side effect like some of the infections listed above.

Summary

Fingernails often give us a clue(s) as to serious health conditions that we may have. In that regard if you have any of the symptoms above and they don’t heal in a few days, you should get it checked out by your doctor to be safe.

Nail biters and pickers are at greater risk of many nail and finger infections especially when we bite and pick nails to the point of making them bleed or cut the skin. This leads to infection entering our bodies possibly leading to more serious illness. Plus chronic nail biting and picking may cause us to not notice some of the above-mentioned conditions as we assume the symptoms we face are simply a side effect of nail biting and is no big deal.