How to Break Nail Biting Habit?
Nail biting habit generally develops in childhood. It is an obnoxious habit. Many times, there are psychological reasons for a person biting his or her nails. They are often nervous. Hygienically, it is bad to bite one’s nails. The dirt in the nails poses a medical problem. One can suffer from gingivitis and other oral diseases and be more susceptible to yeast infections. Many people wear false nails to cover up their bitten ones. They suffer from sore nails. Apart from physical ailments, socially also, biting nails is a bad habit. It is embarrassing. People bite them to cope up with stress. More males tend to bite nails and they are highly intelligent. Whatever said and done, the habit needs to be got rid of. How?
How to Get Rid of Nail Biting Habit?
- Coat the nails with bitter substances so that the person gets a bad taste when he or she bites it
- Hypnosis also works
- Take extra care to keep your nails neat and attractive. It will prevent a person from biting it. Biting nails would make them unattractive
- Stress management techniques can replace this habit, in case one is biting nails due to stress
- Nail biting is due to emotional problems and it is important to tackle these problems
- One can wear artificial nails to prevent the habit of biting nails
- One can wear gloves or colored stickers to prevent the habit
- Replace the habit with another activity like using a stress ball
- An orthodontic measure can also solve the problem. One can have a retainer in the mouth which would make it difficult to bite the nails
- Visualize yourself with healthy nails
- Accept the problem. Take a picture of your nails with a camera and see the condition of your nails
- Keep a record of your progress. Take pictures of the nails that you have been biting. Later on, take pictures of them in good condition. Compare the two
- Eat plenty of calcium so that the nails grow again
- Keep your mouth busy with another activity, like you can eat carrots
- Keep the hands busy with a hobby
Nail biting habit can be very irritating. It needs to be dealt with at grass-root level. One needs to overcome the psychologically problems that are causing it. One can adopt simple measures to get rid of the habit. Sincere efforts need to be made to do away with the habit.