Pedicure Singapore Facts: Why Do People Bite Their Nails?
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Pedicure Singapore Facts: Why Do People Bite Their Nails? Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment
One of the hottest pedicure Singapore topics today is about people biting their nails. Is this a troubling kind of behavior? Are there any symptoms and causes? Are there treatments available for people who love to bite their nails?
Let’s try to make the details simpler.
It is called Onychophagia, or onychophagy – a temporary and relatively nondestructive kind of behavior that is simply a cosmetic concern that may tend to develop to a long-term and severe problem. It’s regarded as a pathological grooming disorder and oral habit considered as chronic, apparently uncontrollable nail-biting that’s damaging to the fingernails as well as the surrounding tissue.
Symptoms Associated with Nail Biting
The damage is often visible to fingernails when a person has Onychophagia and may also co-occur with other body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) like skin picking and hair pulling. The symptoms are both physical and psychological. For those who chronically bite their nails, they may experience the following:
- Pleasure of relief after biting.
- Tension or distress before biting,
- Embarrassment, shame, and guilt that is usually related to the physical damage appearance of their nails and skin caused by biting.
- Dental problems, mouth injuries, infections and abscesses.
- Tissue damage to nails, cuticles, and fingers.
- Sometimes it may lead to difficult social and family relationships.
Nail-biting starts in early childhood, a common occurrence during adolescence, and may even continue in adulthood stage. The good thing is that this behavior usually stops or decreases with age.
The Causes of Nail Biting
It has been observed that onychophagia may have a genetic link; some individuals have inherited tendency in developing body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs), and mood/anxiety disorders that’s higher-than-average from direct family members.
Nail-biting has been associated with anxiety because chewing on nails is believed to relieve tension, stress, and boredom.
Those who bite their nails reported that they do this whenever they are lonely, nervous, hungry and bored. This may also be a habit that’s transferred from earlier finger or thumb sucking.
Nail-biting can also be associated with mental issues such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), separation anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, tic disorder, enuresis, etc.
Treatment and Prevention
Here are some suggested treatments:
- Wear gloves, mittens or socks.
- Use bite-plate or retainer-style devices as disablements that will serve as reminders not to bite.
- Cut the nails short.
- Coat fingernails with bad tasting products.
- Go to your nearest manicure or pedicure Singapore salon and splurge on keeping the nails looking good while diverting attention at the same time.
- Identify triggers and find ways to cope up or to distract yourself.
- Keep your mouth and hands busy by finding something to fiddle with like a stress ball, a pen to click or worry stone. Chewing gum can also help.
- Severe cases are focused on treatment that can reduce or remove emotional factors connected with nail-biting.
- Some body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) benefited from cognitive behavioral therapy including progressive muscle relaxation and habit-rehearsal training, ACT or acceptance and commitment therapy, plus a self-help technique called as movement decoupling.
- Treatments can be successful with the individual’s cooperation and permission who is nail-biting, plus positive support and routine follow-ups.