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[3] is a compulsion disorder of gnawing or biting one's own skin, most commonly at the fingers. This action can either be conscious or unconscious [4] and it is considered to be a type of pica. Those affected with dermatophagia typically bite the skin around the nails, leading to bleeding and discoloration over time.
Biting nails can lead to broken skin on the cuticle. When cuticles are improperly removed, they are susceptible to microbial and viral infections such as paronychia. Saliva may then redden and infect the skin. [2] [4] In rare cases, fingernails may become severely deformed after years of nail biting due to the destruction of the nail bed. [2] [5]
They appear as thickened, fissured cauliflower-like skin around the nail plate. Periungual warts often cause loss of the cuticle and paronychia. Nail biting increases susceptibility to these warts. [1] Warts of this kind often cause damage to the nail either by lifting the nail from the skin or causing the nail to partially detach.
The problem doesn't stop at nails, either. Habitual nail-biters often chomp on the skin around their fingers, too, leaving open cuts and abrasions that could easily pick up even more bacteria or ...
The fingers have been compulsively picked and chewed in someone with excoriation disorder and dermatophagia. Compulsive picking of the face using nail pliers and tweezers. Episodes of skin picking are often preceded or accompanied by tension, anxiety, or stress. [6] In some cases, following picking, the affected person may feel depressed. [5]
Paronychia is an inflammation of the skin around the nail, which can occur suddenly (acute), when it is usually due to the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or gradually (chronic) when it is commonly caused by Candida albicans. [2] The term is from Greek: παρωνυχία from para, "around", onyx, "nail" and the noun suffix -ia. [7] [8]
When they mites bite, they release a digestive enzyme that allows the chigger to drink skin tissue without burrowing into it. Due to this enzyme, the itching is most uncomfortable in the first one ...
Autophagia is the practice of biting/consuming one's body. It is a sub category of self-injurious behavior (SIB). [1] Commonly, it manifests in humans as nail biting and hair pulling. In rarer circumstances, it manifests as serious self mutilative behavior such as biting off one's fingers. [2] Autophagia affects both humans and non humans. [3]