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Knowledge Base
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- Bruised nail
- Calluses and corns
- Chloronychia
- Dermatitis
- Dermatophyte and non-dermatophyte fungi
- Erythronychia
- Habit-tic
- Hangnails
- Hapalonychia
- Heller's Median Nail Dystrophy
- Hyperhidrosis
- Introduction to Nail Conditions
- Koilonychia
- Lamellar Dystrophy
- Leukonychia
- Nail biting
- Nail Clubbing
- Nail Grooves / Depressions
- Onychocryptosis
- Onycholysis
- Onychomadesis
- Onychomycosis
- Psoriasis
- Pterygium
- Splinter haemorrhages
- White Superficial Onychomycosis
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- Articles coming soon
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Ask the Experts
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- Can I cut the keratinised proximal nail fold?
- Can I use just acetone to cleanse the nail plate before a service?
- Can Nail Polish be Organic?
- Can nail products repair the nail?
- Can the cuticle cover the whole nail?
- Do all nail plates grow 1mm a week?
- Do manicures ruin your nails?
- Hangnails. What's your advice?
- How do I save a cut nail?
- How does cold weather affect the nails?
- Is calcium good for nails?
- Is cuticle remover a must-have?
- Is nail polish safe to use for repetitive use on clients because it 'can't store pathogens'?
- Quick-dry Nail Polishes?
- What are these thin black lines under the nail?
- What is a dry manicure?
- What is a Japanese manicure?
- What is a wet manicure?
- What is the safest type of manicure?
- What's the best type of manicure to get?
- What's the difference between a French manicure and an American manicure?
- What's the harm with a water soak?
- Which is better? Soap and water or hand sanitiser before a service?
- Which way to brush off the dust?
- Why do nail polish top coats get stringy when applied?
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- Acid-based or acid-free primers?
- Can I e-file the natural nail underneath an enhancement?
- Do acrylics have a limited future?
- Does a universal monomer exist?
- How much product to remove during rebalance?
- Pinching enhancements?
- To infill or to soak off?
- To pinch the nail enhancement or not?
- What do I do with my leftover monomer?
- What is the difference between a French manicure and pink and white?
- What size brush to use?
- Why do nails feel thin after the removal of a nail coating?
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- A chemical burn?
- Autoclave use
- Can I get a headache from working with nail products?
- Can I use my oven to sterilise my tools?
- Can I work on diabetic clients?
- Do I need qualifications to do nails?
- Enhancements on Nail Biters?
- Fluff vs synthetic brush for dusting
- Is an E-File safe to use?
- Is Covid or hand sanitising affecting nail services?
- My client has chipping/loss of enhancement and I’ve never had this before?
- Should a mask be worn throughout the whole service?
- Should I disinfect all nail brushes?
- Should I use a ‘protein bonder’ to prevent lifting?
- Should you pour the end of an old bottle into the new?
- Some of my clients are getting heat spikes when curing the base and top coat.
- UV light cabinets for nails files?
- What are the legal requirements for the treatment of minors?
- What is a Brazilian style manicure?
- What is a combi manicure?
- What is a Russian manicure?
- What is the difference between cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation?
- What is the difference between HEMA and di-HEMA?
- When do nail products expire?
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- Acrylates in gel-like nail polishes?
- Can I get a headache from working with nail products?
- Can my client be allergic to acetone?
- Do I have an allergy or an irritation?
- Gluten-free nail products?
- How did I get an allergy to gel?
- Is acetone safe for removing nail products?
- What UV gel brands do you recommend?
- Why are we seeing more reactions from gel polish services vs gel enhancement services?
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- Are hard gels for everyone?
- Are UV gels better for nails?
- Can I e-file the natural nail underneath an enhancement?
- Do gel nails ruin your nails?
- Does freeze curing interrupt the curing process?
- Does using UV gel with full cover clear tips cure properly?
- Gel on toes?
- How can I find a non-toxic UV gel polish range?
- How much product to remove during rebalance?
- Inhibition layer and no-cleanse gels
- Removing undercured gel
- Should I buy my nail lamp based on wattage?
- Should I get gel or dip nails?
- Should my clients wash their hands before I apply oil?
- Should UV Gels "Burn Like Crazy"?
- To infill or to soak off?
- To pinch the nail enhancement or not?
- Using cuticle oil during soak-off?
- What does 'overcured' really mean?
- What is the correct method for applying a 'BIAB' type product?
- What is the difference between a French manicure and pink and white?
- What is the difference between HEMA and di-HEMA?
- What UV gel brands do you recommend?
- Why are we seeing more reactions from gel polish services vs gel enhancement services?
- Why do nails feel thin after the removal of a nail coating?
- Why do some UV gel colors fade?
- Why do you advise wiping a no wipe to coat?
- Will an LED table lamp affect LED-cured gels?
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- Do Nails Need to Breathe?
- How do I avoid ‘greenies’?
- How do I treat ‘green nail syndrome’?
- How does cold weather affect the nails?
- I'm pretty sure my UV gel manicure client has WSO
- Leukonychia or not?
- Lichen Planus. What do I do?
- The onychomycosis (fungal nail) test is positive... Now what?
- Treating Fungal Nails
- What are these thin black lines under the nail?
- What is Onycholsyis?
- What to do with unhealthy nails?
- Why are there ridges in my nails?
- Why is silk or fibreglass good on thinner / damaged and weaker nails?
- Why should we NOT cover "greenies"?
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Support
Enhancements on Nail Biters?
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Question: Should we apply enhancements on nail biters? I have a client who is a nurse and a very bad nail-biter. She asked me to help by giving her UV gels to help her stop biting. I thought this was a great idea since her nails were so damaged that she could be a health hazard at her job. Isn’t there a less likely chance of bacteria growing on top of the enhancement? Particularly UV gel because it is not as porous as other nail coatings? She bites her nails so badly that she has to put Band-Aids on them because they hurt so much. What should I do?
Answer: You are correct; her nail-biting habit can lead to infections because these damaged areas of the nail can harbor disease-causing pathogens. Many studies have confirmed that nurses generally do not wash their hands properly or often enough. This could, indeed, create an infection risk for patients as well. I mean no offense to nurses. It’s a wonderful profession and I admire their work, but studies show they often don’t wash their hands as much as they should.
I do understand your desire to help, but applying artificial nail coatings could make matters worse. Nail biters are notorious pickers and often chew on artificial nail coatings as well. When taken to the extreme you’ve described, nail-biting is compulsive behavior. Therefore, simply applying a nail coating is not likely to address the compulsive behavior. Bacteria can also grow in areas where the nail coating is peeling, cracking, or chipping. The key to keeping nail coatings safe is to keep them in good shape and avoid service breakdown. When this is done, I agree with you that the surface of an artificial nail is much less likely to harbor pathogens than the surface of the natural nail plate.
However, you should be very cautious about applying the nail coatings to any exposed living tissue. If the nail bed is exposed as a result of the client’s actions, I don’t recommend that you apply these products to either exposed or broken skin. Doing so increases the potential that the client can develop an adverse skin reaction. These types of reactions cause skin damage that can also harbor pathogens, so these types of conditions should also be avoided.
For less severe cases of nail-biting, you can get some more information here:
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