When you rise up with your hand in your mouth, biting even the last bit of your nail that is present over your skin, when the incessant scolding of your near and dear ones does not affect your dedication to bite your nails, then you are certainly suffering from a disease called Onychophagia. Well, don’t panic it is the other name for nail biting.

When you find kids at home cutting down their foot nails with a nail cutter but never using it for their hands, do not look for any more clues, they must be biting their nails.

It is an obsessive compulsive disorder when you are obsessed to bite off your nails and the nearby skin which gives them intense pleasure and keeps them up.

It is at termed as a psychological disorder as it cannot be treated by any remedies or any medicine, one can only get rid of this through his intense will.

You might never have paid attention to this but nail biting is a gross for your health.

• Nails are hard hence biting them puts pressure on your teeth. Biting nails will grind your teeth and make them irregular.
• If you hold braces on your teeth then biting your nails will be a curse, as this habit will irritate your braces, your irregular teeth will further get irregular.
• For those of you who are desperate nail bitters, you bite your nails till that extent that you bite down all the nearby skin of your nails which can cause irritation and allergies.
• Nail bitters can catch common diseases very easily. We keep touching different objects every now and then and any one of them can be affected by disease causing bacteria and viruses as nails are the perfect place for bacteria to thrive.
• Nail biting affects your gums as well. You, at times, push your teeth hard to bite a stubborn nail which in turn puts pressure on your gums, damaging them.

How to avoid:

Nail biting being more than a disease is a mental disorder. Sucking fingers, lip biting is easy to get rid of, by putting bandages on fingers. But nail biting cannot be abandoned that easily. General reasons for nail biting are Stress, boredom, nervousness, frustration, loneliness, depression, anxiety, hereditary, look for the one that most matches your situation and keep an eye on yourself when you are in such condition and you want to bite your nails. It is only your will power that can make you survive any disease.