Turns out, biting your nails can have more of an effect on your oral (and overall) health than you think.

According to research, Onychophagia (commonly known as nail-biting), has been observed to affect up to 30% of children and 45% of young adults. The habit seems to fade once people hit adulthood, affecting up to 5% of grown adults. Since it’s an oral/para-functional habit, it’s been associated with obsessive-compulsive disorders—even bundled in the same category as excessive nose-picking and thumb-sucking. So it’s a self-soothing technique or “coping mechanism” for those who may have underlying psychological issues like anxiety, nervousness, or depression.

With that said, there are many people in your life who do this—maybe even you! But what are the long-term consequences? Some effects of biting nails:

Germ Transport

Your fingernails are an ideal environment for bacteria to thrive. That includes potentially infectious organisms, allergens, and bacteria. Once it enters your mouth, it enters your body. And that’s how infection starts.

Dermatological Nightmare

Paronychia is an infection of the soft tissue around your nails. Think of hangnails as being on the low end of the spectrum of this painful disease. More acute infections are pain, swelling, and even abscesses or fungal infections.

Dental Downer

When teeth are repeatedly exposed to pressure, they can chip enamel, fracture restorations, put stress on anterior teeth/ligaments, and even contribute to misalignment.  This especially applies to adults and children undergoing orthodontic treatment.

Quite the Sight

Cosmetically speaking, nail-biting doesn’t leave hands looking fresh and manicured, but more ravaged and defiled. This could add more anxiety to an already nervous habit! Talk about fanning the flames.

It goes without saying that nail-biting isn’t particularly good for your oral and overall health. A T-Scan dentist can analyze the dental occlusion—how the teeth come together in the mouth—to be sure that long-term habits haven’t affected the dentition.

T-Scan can show you in real time how the teeth are hitting, how hard, and with how much force. It’s a piece of dental technology that dentists rely on to make sure teeth are coming together at the right place and time—protecting your natural teeth and dental work.

Want to see if nail-biting has affected teeth? T-Scan can show you. Check out our eBook to see the ways in which T-Scan has helped identify destructive bite issues and helped correct them.