What happens if you bite your nails too much

So how do you quit the habit? For a lot of people, nail biting is a manifestation of stress or psychological disorders. If your habit is mild, Scher says there are over-the-counter products you can spread on your nails that have a bitter taste. Contact us at letters time. By Markham Heid. Related Stories. Already a print subscriber? While that's sort of helpful— symptoms of stress can be silent or hard to identify —biting your nails can also lead to some truly gross or harmful health issues, says Adam Friedman , MD, associate professor of dermatology at George Washington University.

If you bite off too big a piece, you can expose the delicate skin beneath your nail, leaving it exposed to any bacteria or pathogens in your mouth—and there are plenty of them.

One of the most common forms of infection is called paronychia, and it can cause swelling , redness, pain, and pus-filled lumps. That infection can stick around for weeks at a time, shows a study in the journal American Family Physician. Friedman says biting your cuticles—the narrow crescents of skin that rim the bottom of your nail—is the most common cause of paronychia. Your saliva's chemical composition allows it to break down fats and other food molecules, Friedman says.

While that aids your digestion , it can also damage and inflame the skin of your fingertips if you're constantly jamming them in your mouth, he says. For the same reason, licking your lips can cause them to become chapped; your saliva is actually corroding the skin, Friedman says.

Dealing with weak nails? Here are 8 reasons why your nails keep breaking. While exposing your fingers to the bacteria in your mouth is bad news, giving all the nasty microorganisms on your fingers access to your mouth is probably worse.

Put those germ-encrusted nails in your mouth, and there's no limit to the bad stuff that could result—from common colds to a serious stomach virus. Your fingernails contain a generative layer called the "matrix," which is sort of like the bed from which all your nail cells flower, Friedman explains. Biting or biting-related infections can damage that matrix, which could lead to chronic ingrown nails or nail deformities , he says.

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