While chronic nail biting is well known to cause the obvious damage and unsightliness to our nails, it can also cause breaks and cracking to teeth, damage to the root of the teeth, mouth infections and can impair a person’s success with orthodontic braces should they have them. But nail biting can also have another potentially more sinister – as if these side effects weren’t serious enough – effect on your stomach.
Putting your fingers in your mouth and biting your nails brings bacteria and germs into your mouth that can lead to gum and mouth infections that make their way to your stomach. This can lead to gastrointestinal infections that cause diarrhea, cramps and stomach pain. Swallowing bitten fingernails can also lead to stomach problems moreso if you use nail polish or have other chemicals on your nails at the time.
Bacteria and germs easily enter the mouth and eventually the stomach from nail biting. Nail biting can cause a number of side effects as mentioned above but swallowing your fingernails after biting them raises a few other questions and possible side effects.
Fingernails In The Stomach
Do fingernails digest in your stomach? No, they don’t. While some people believe that stomach acid will dissolve fingernails, this isn’t necessarily the case. Fingernails don’t digest in your stomach and while the occasional nail being swallowed is certainly gross, it probably won’t cause you a problem. Fingernails are small enough that in most cases they will pass through you during regular bowel movements.
Having said that, if you wear nail polish and bite and swallow your nails, you are swallowing chemicals from the nail polish that typically include ibutyl phthalate, toluene, and formaldehyde which don’t do our bodies any good as they are toxic.
Bezoars
One of the more bizarre stories of a chronic nail biter (and clearly a swallower of bitten nails) was recorded in South Africa in 1954 when a man was observed with a bezoar made of bitten fingernails in his stomach. A bezoar is a solid mass that gets trapped in the intestines and that may cause a blockage in extreme cases. In some instances, a bezoar will lead to appetite loss, nausea and vomiting but can also lead to more serious side effects like ulcers, intestinal bleeding and even gangrene.
Perhaps the fact that this story goes all the way back to 1954 and is still being referenced means that the chance of it happening is very rare. Still, food for though (no pun intended) for those who bite and swallow their nails.
Dermatophagia
Dermatophagia is a condition that involves compulsively biting the skin and often specifically on the fingers. In that regard, nail biting is often associated with Dermatophagia as nail biters may also bite skin on their fingers that comes loose while biting their nails.
Medical professionals often consider Dermatophagia as a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) in the same vein as nail biting. It is often also considered an example of obsessive compulsive disorder and is beginning to be studied in terms of mental health. Similar to nail biting, Dermatophagia hasn’t been researched for a significant period of time so you may not quickly be diagnosed with it as it isn’t necessarily quickly diagnosed by all doctors.
While chewing and swallowing small pieces of your skin may not cause any problems to your stomach on their own, the same bacteria and germs may enter your mouth and eventually your stomach from your skin as with your fingernails.
What Happens When You Stop Biting Your Nails?
The things that happen when you stop biting your nails are mostly what you will avoid in the future. The obvious benefits are nicer, longer nails and a decrease in the chance you pass bacteria from your fingers to your mouth. You therefore decrease the chance of mouth and teeth problems, infections, stomach problems mentioned above and the chance of hangnails.
Hangnails aren’t nails at all but torn, loose skin on your finger and are an open sore on that is typically caused when you bite or tear off a nail. Longtime nail biters have undoubtedly had our share of hangnails which we probably bit off but given what a hangnail is, would be better served by cutting the skin off with a sterile pair of scissors rather than risk further infection from our mouth.
Research shows that the sooner you stop biting your nails, the better. A 2008 report suggested that long term nail biting could lead to a permanent shortening of nails and a disappearing nail bed.
Conclusion
The main side effects of nail biting – other than the impact on our fingers and nails themselves – relate to potential tooth and mouth problems as well as infections and other side effects. Nail biters who swallow their bitten nails run the risk of increased stomach problems such as diarrhea and cramping. In rare but severe cases, chronic swallowing of fingernails could lead to a bezoar developing which can lead to more severe problems as mentioned above.
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