Once you've managed to stop biting your nails, one of the questions often asked is whether bitten nails can grow back to normal. The bad news is that although fairly uncommon, nail biting can lead to permanently damaged nails.
Nail biting explained
Anxiety: Nail biting can be a sign of anxiety or stress. The repetitive behavior seems to help some people cope with challenging emotions. Boredom: Behaviors such as nail biting and hair twirling are more common when you're bored, hungry, or need to keep your hands busy.
Nail-biting is frequently associated with anxiety, because the act of chewing on nails reportedly relieves stress, tension, or boredom. People who habitually bite their nails often report that they do so when they feel nervous, bored, lonely, or even hungry.
Hyperfocusing on picking their skin, pulling/eating their hair, or chewing their nails/cheeks can send kids with ADHD into a “trance” to escape from feeling overwhelmed by a day of executive demands.
Nail biting becomes a way to relieve stress. Soon, it turns into a habit. Contrary to what some may believe, it is not a habit that disturbs the nail biter. Quite to the contrary, it feels good, which is part of the reason why it's hard to stop.
Dental problems such as misalignment and chipped teeth. Fungal infections in the nail bed. Illness, as fingers pass bacteria to your mouth. Mouth issues, including jaw pain and soft tissue injuries.
It is thought that nail biting may also be linked with having a perfectionist personality type. Perfectionism is associated with a low boredom threshold and a much-reduced tolerance for frustration.
The standard rate of growth of a normal fingernail is between 0.5 – 1.2mm per week, but this differs from one individual to another. On average, this is approximately 0.1mm a day.
Lemon juice could help to brighten your nails and remove stains, and the vitamin C promotes stronger growth. Using a cotton pad, swipe lemon juice over each nail and allow to dry. You could also use a slice of lemon directly on the nail. Do this twice a week, following with a rich moisturiser.
Try introducing regular snacks of crunchy carrot, cucumber and apple sticks (keep it healthy) as they can replicate the 'crunch' they get when biting their nails. A small stress ball or some silly putty can work in the same way, giving your child something else to focus on when they're feeling fidgety or worried.
It is known that people who usually bite their nails experience the common cold more often than people who do not bite their nails. While continuously infected with a cold can weaken your immune system and leave it open to more dangerous ailments.
It's unsanitary: Your nails harbor bacteria and germs, and are almost twice as dirty as fingers. What's more, swallowing dirty nails can lead to stomach problems.
Biting Nails
This habit indicates nerves or insecurity. Whether this means they are nervous about talking to you or just in general, this can be a telling body language cue. It can show that you might be making them nervous (which can be a good or bad thing).
The nail bed sits on top of tiny blood vessels that feed it and give your nails their pink color. Your fingernails grow slowly — in fact, they grow about one tenth of an inch (2.5 millimeters) each month. At that rate it can take about 3 to 6 months to completely replace a nail.
Dermatophagia is a psychological condition in which a person compulsively bites, chews, gnaws, or eats their skin. It often affects the skin around people's fingers. Dermatophagia is an emerging concept in mental health research.
“Stimming” refers to self-stimulating behavior, which are repetitive physical or verbal tics common in individuals with autism. To some degree, we all exhibit stimming behaviors. Nail biting, twirling your hair, drumming your fingers on the table, or cracking your knuckles are all forms of stimming.
People with dermatophagia chew their skin out of compulsion, and can do so on a variety of places on their body. Those with dermatophagia typically chew the skin surrounding their fingernails and joints.
Some of the reasons children bite their nails includes stress or anxiety, they are bored, they've seen other children do it and copy their behaviors, or their nails are not kept trimmed and they do it as a form of self-trimming. Most children that bite their nails have no problems.