Many people have the habit of biting their nails. (Schematic diagram / flip from pixabay)
Long-term nail biting is harmful to health! Huang Xuan, a specialist in intensive care medicine, said that nail biting is a common oral habit, and there are examples in both children and adults. Xuan also reminded that long-term nail biting may cause nail damage, oral infection, dental problems and skin ulcers, and worst of all, infection may lead to serious illness.
Huang Xuan posted on Facebook fan page on the 22nd“Dr. Ooi Hean”On the Internet, an article titled “Nail biting is curable” pointed out that nail biting (Onychophagia) usually begins in childhood, and most people will stop when they grow up, but some will not. The prevalence of nail biting in different groups varies from The percentage ranged from 3% to 46.9%, among which medical students had the highest rate of biting their nails.
Huang Xuan further explained that according to the research of Williams et al. (2020), nail biting may be related to emotions such as psychological stress, anxiety, boredom and loneliness, and 36.8% to 63% of the cases have a family history. In addition, nail biting is not actually obsessive-compulsive disorder, but a type of symptom “tics” classified as a neuropsychiatric disease “Tourette’s syndrome”.
Huang Xuan also cited the research of Pacan et al. (2014) to remind that long-term nail biting may lead to 4 health problems, namely:
- Damaged nails: Nails are deformed, broken and brittle.
- Dental Problems: Tooth wear, misalignment and sensitivity.
- Mouth infection: Germs enter the body through the mouth and may cause an infection.
- Skin problems: Inflammation, infection or ulceration of the skin on the fingertips.
However, Huang Xuan said that “nail biting is curable”, including: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Lifestyle Therapy (HRT), which are considered to be the first-line treatments for onychophagia. However, 26.4% of parents would not take their children to see a doctor, and as many as 70.2% of parents believed that punishing their children was an effective way to break their children’s habits, but the result was to make children more anxious.
If you want to stop biting your nails, Huang Xuan suggested that you can stop biting your nails on your own initiative, or replace it with other harmless behaviors, such as playing with small objects, or you can seek the above-mentioned CBT or HRT treatments to change bad behaviors and improve The ability to cope with stress.