Onychophagy, that is the mania for biting nails, is very common in both men and women. But how to stop this bad habit? Are there natural remedies and specific products? The answer is yes and in this article we will try to analyze some of them to say goodbye to this annoying practice.

How to stop biting your nails

In cases of not too advanced nail biting, that is, if you bite your nails only in moments of particular nervousness or if you do not reach extreme levels, it is possible to try to stop by treating them more. If it seems trivial,  putting on the nail polish, filing them carefully and dedicating half an hour to taking care of their appearance discourages them from eating them.

In case of advanced nail biting:

For boys or for women who do not even stop in front of a freshly enameled and cared for nail, it is possible to use professional products.

Very often these are very bitter tasting nail polishes, not too shiny (consequently men can use it too) which gives a disgusting taste to the surface, preventing from nibbling the nails.

Home remedies to stop nail biting

At first, we can use the manicure kit to make the nails short, when you want to eat them. Once, when these products did not exist, special bitter soaps were sold or pepper was rubbed on the nails to stop eating them. The problem with this last method is that those who bite their nails usually create small wounds on the sides or on the nail margin and the pepper risks inflaming the area and causing it to burn, causing more damage than anything else.

Risks of onychophagy

And if you don’t need nail polish or bitter products, I’ll tell you something that will probably discourage you by making you stop biting your nails. The nails are a very important part of the hand and serve to protect the fingers.

If you gnaw them until you get to discover your fingertip far beyond what is allowed (or you gnaw your cuticles) you risk getting serious infections such as “fingertip”: a disorder that creates pain, pus, infections and requires the use of antibiotics to heal.

And you? Do you have any tips or methods that we haven’t listed here? Hoping to have been helpful, I hug you and look forward to seeing in the next article!

Read also:5 misconceptions about nails

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