What happens if i bite my nails

Aug 28, Cedars-Sinai Staff. When we are nervous or anxious, it's not uncommon to engage in repetitive behaviors. Unfortunately, nail biting in particular isn't innocuous. There's even a medical term for it: onychophagia.

Maria Scremin , a primary care provider at Cedars-Sinai. If you're a nail-biting adult, chances are good that you picked up the habit when you were young. But there are good reasons to break the habit. After all, your hands are teeming with bacteria, especially beneath the nails. If your fingers are always in your mouth, the bacteria they touch land there too. While there are no clear-cut reasons for nail biting, a variety of factors can increase the likelihood of you chewing on your fingernails.

While it can occur without any underlying psychiatric conditions, it's also associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ADHD , separation anxiety, tic disorder, and other mental health problems. Scremin suggests. Nail biting is rarely dangerous, but it can compromise your overall health, especially if you chew below the nailbed. Any biting and picking below the cuticle can create structural changes in the base of the nail that alters the way the nail grows out.

Jasmine O. Obioha , a dermatologist at Cedars-Sinai. Topical treatments like cortisone can reduce inflammation and offer relief, but sometimes doctors have to drain the area to relieve pressure.

Related Articles. How to Break the Cycle. Pulling Your Hair Out? For Some, the Struggle Is Real. Waking Up With a Sore Jaw? Trending Topics. What Parents Need to Know. Symptoms of paronychia include a painful, red, swollen area around the nail, often 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. Also, if you chew on nails that have warts—which are caused by a virus—and then chew on other nails, this can cause warts to spread to other areas. 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.

Also, the bacteria that is on your fingers or nails can linger in your mouth and cause halitosis, or bad breath. In particular, a family of bacteria called enterobacteriaceae — which includes salmonella and E.

When you bite your nails, those bacteria end up in your mouth and gut, where they can cause gastro-intestinal infections that lead to diarrhea and abdominal pain.

Long-term, habitual nail nibblers can also suffer from a type of infection called paronychia, Scher says. Tears or abrasions in the skin of your fingertips allow strains of bacteria or yeast to get inside. Both cause swelling, redness, and a buildup of puss around and under the nail, which has to be drained surgically and treated with antibiotics or antifungal agents, he explains.

If the infection is bacterial, the nail can also become tender and painful.