Nail biting — onychophagia is the medical term for it — is something that up to 30% of the population does, according to UCLA Health. It’s even more common among children.
It sometimes can be a sign of an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.
“Nail biting can lead to cosmetic problems with the nails or infection due to the mouth bacteria being transferred to the fingers,” says Dr. Jesse Bracamonte, a family medicine physician at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.
Nail biting can also cause ingrown nails, temporomandibular joint pain and dysfunction and can cause problems with your teeth through chipping or misalignment issues.
It isn’t necessarily something to be overly concerned about, especially in children.
Parents often assume that kids bite their nails because of anxiety or stress, but kids also bite their nails for many other reasons such as curiosity, boredom, habit, self-soothing or cosmetic reasons,” says Dr. Cathryn Tobin, a pediatrician and author of “The Parent’s Problem Solver.”
For adults and some children, though, anxiety and stress can contribute more broadly, and sometimes there’s even a mental health condition at play.
Adults sometimes “bite their nails due to boredom or from the behavior becoming a habit due to having a physical finding such as a hangnail,” says Bracamonte, who says the habit might also be developed by watching another person do it.
That the habit can be brought on by both boredom and anxiety is one of the reasons it’s so common.
So how do you stop?
Many kids grow out of the behavior naturally. And most adults can stop biting their nails easily.
But there are some tips that can help.
“Keeping nails trimmed with the use of a nail trimmer, identifying the triggers that cause nail biting and finding alternative ways to deal with triggers such as using a stress ball may help with breaking this habit,” Bracamonte says.
Getting to the bottom of stress or anxiety through professional help or lifestyle changes might be necessary.
Tobin says that when helping children break the habit, patience is key. She says things that don’t work include employing pressure, nagging and shaming.
“Ask your child, ‘What can I do to help you stop biting your nails?’” Tobin says.
She says the motivation should be about creating an environment “where they feel backed up, understood and seen” by acknowledging it can be hard to stop and by recognizing their efforts and progress.
She also recommends keeping the child’s hands busy with other things like a rubber ball or silly putty, reminding the child often and taking things slowly.
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