Nail biting is a dirty habit that often starts at a young age and continues into adulthood.
Here are 10 things you need to know about nail biting and how to quit.
How prevalent is nail biting?
Various statistics exist that show that nail biting generally isn’t noted before age 4. In children aged 5 – 12, nail biting is noticed in about 20% – 33% of young boys and girls. In adolescents aged 13 – 18, up to 45% of teenage males and females bite their nails. In adults 19 years and older, about 20% – 30% of male and females bite their nails. You’ll see a wide range because exact numbers aren’t known since nail biting research is relatively new certainly compared to other habits.
Many nail biters will stop biting their nails by the time they reach adulthood but many others will continue throughout life. Sometimes people will quit but certain events or triggers can set them off and they start biting or picking their nails again. It can be a very difficult habit to quit once and for all so if you’re having trouble kicking the habit, you are not alone.
What product will help me quit nail biting?
There are a number of anti-nail biting products but at the end of the day, they generally mask the problem and resolve it. Bitter nail polish won’t help you if you also pick your nails since you aren’t putting your fingers in your mouth. Wearing gloves or other implements to slow down nail biting may work for a time but eventually you’re going to take the gloves off.
Masking the problem with a nail biting product may work in the short term but once you stop using the product or run out, you can easily start biting again. You’re better off getting to the root of the problem and figuring out why you bite nails in the first place.
Does nail biting hurt long term?
A widely quoted online figure is that biting your nails adds about $4,000 in lifetime additional dental bills to repair teeth from damage caused by the habit. Nail biting can also cause damage to the roots of your teeth, jaw, fingers, fingernails, cuticles and stomach.
Nail biting is also very unsanitary particularly when you put unwashed fingers in your mouth which can lead to increased sickness and infection and the spread of disease particularly in a COVID world.
Is biting nails a mental disorder?
Nail biting has been associated with various disorders like depression, anxiety, OCD, ADHD and more. It can be a very individual habit and one that may also be due to several or more underlying conditions.
Mind you, many people just bite their nails out of boredom, to combat stress, because they’re hungry or just to keep their hands busy too.
Why is it so hard to stop biting my nails?
Nail biting is an easy habit to start but often a difficult one to quit. While many people start biting their nails as kids and often stop on their own by early adulthood, for others it is something they do throughout their life or when experiencing certain stresses or anxieties.
We often don’t consider the health, teeth, and mouth-related damage we can do and it’s not necessarily well-known by many nail biters either. In that regard, nail biting is often considered to be an undesirable but harmless activity which might partially explain why we are aren’t able to quit sooner.
What if I pick my nails?
Information on nail biting is easily found online but nail picking is another story. The habit is generally referred to as nail biting using your teeth but many people also pick their nails with their other hand. In that regard, anti-nail biting products are often targeted and designed with the mouth in mind to prevent a person from physically biting their nails with their teeth, something that won’t help a nail picker.
Having said that, research on nail biting is rather scant and has been only been a recent phenomenon. Nail biting and picking is generally seen as a dirty but manageable habit for most people perhaps because we don’t necessarily consider the heath-related consequences.
If you pick your nails only or predominantly, it might even more difficult to quit since there isn’t nearly as much written about it nor are there as many products to help you quit.
Is nail biting worse if I wear braces?
Wearing full train track style braces puts great stress on your teeth and particularly the roots. Your teeth are being pulled into alignment and are under significant stress in that regard. Biting your nails puts further pressure on the teeth which can lead to tooth cracking and other damage which is exacerbated when you wear braces.
Biting your nails while wearing braces can further delay successful orthodontic treatment and extend the time you have to wear them, adding to the cost.
What is Onychophagia?
Onychophagia is the medical name for chronic nail biting. You’ll often see Onychophagia referred to as a pathological oral habit and a grooming disorder and as a body-focused repetitive behavior or BFRB.
Sometimes people in the medical field will suggest that nail biting is an example of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) as the American Psychiatric Association (APA) did beginning in 2013 when it chose to recognize nail biting as a form of OCD in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Fifth Edition. For many nail biters though, the habit isn’t necessarily compulsive. It’s just something we do when we feel like it or even subconsciously without thought.
Can you stop nail biting in 9 minutes? One week? 30 days?
Online claims are often made that suggest that you can quit nail biting in a period of time like 9 minutes, a week or 30 days. The problem with putting a time frame on quitting a chronic nail biting habit is that the time you pick is arbitrary and if you fail to meet your self-imposed deadline, you may feel like a failure even though the date was random to begin with.
Nail biting is an easy habit to start, to quit and to start up again. Nail biting can be done any time and unlike a habit such as excessive drinking or smoking, you don’t need to buy anything. The key to stopping nail biting is identifying your triggers (why you bite your nails), having a persistence to quit, and turning your new habit into not biting your nails whenever you experience the trigger that used to set you off in the first place.
You can quit nail biting by going cold turkey but it’s best to manage your expectations accordingly as your willingness to quit has a lot to do with it.
When should I worry about my nail biting?
Many people pick nails, bite their lip, pick at skin and do other repetitive activities from time to time. But when does a habit like nail biting and picking become a more serious problem you should really worry about? Research from Australia showed that people with a clinical level of body-focused repetitive behavior such as chronic nail biting are 2 – 4 times as likely to experience other mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
When nail biting is so bad that your fingers are bleeding, you get mouth and finger infections and your nails are so short that your fingers hurt, you should see your doctor for help. You might have underlying issues or concerns that should be dealt with.
Summary
Nail biting is a very prevalent habit that is easy to start and difficult to quit. Anti-nail biting products may not help unless you get to the root of the problem.
Check out my detailed nail biting case study where I describe my lifelong nail biting habit which I finally stopped on my own pretty much cold turkey shortly after I turned 50 years old.
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