Is onycholysis curable?

[loriebarrdi]

Dear all,

I have bitten my nails for 20+ years. Not pretty bad, not to the point of bleeding and such but my nails were quite damaged, as one would guess. However, my fears of getting Covid were bigger than my anxiety-led nailbitting and I stopped 5 months ago.

I don't know if having bitten them for so long has led my nails to be naturally short, which is a possibility since I have really small hands, so they become unattached really low: the pink part is very short but it's the white part that grows. Also, one thing that I have noticed is that my nailbed is uneven, like, a lot. I have attached a picture to it.

https://ibb.co/jwGHdXb

My questions are: will the pink part get longer eventually or will it be this short forever? Is this uneven thing treatable? Will it correct itself? I love my new nails when I paint them but I hate them when not.

[Paxiled]

Not sure why biting one's nails would "damage" them.  It can annoy onlookers, but all you're doing is cutting your nails with your teeth instead of a tool.  How wide the pink is I'm guessing is more dependent on who you are than anything else.  Health and length of nails is dependent on your diet.  I bit my nails for years as well, and when I stopped, they just grow now and I have to take the time to cut them.  I preferred biting them, frankly.  But I'm a guy and don't care what they look like, so there's that.  But they didn't seem to suffer from it and they grow just fine now that I've stopped biting them.  We're all different, and we all look different.  A lot of women you see with beautiful nails, those aren't actually their nails, if you get my drift.  Some of us have lovely slender long fingers and great nails, and some of us have short stubby fingers and nails that look like they protrude from short stubby nails.  I'm sure it's all fine.

[loriebarrdi]

Thank you for your comment. However, the main reason I asked is not aesthetical, as sometimes onchyolysis can be caused by fungus.  I don't mind so much how they look but if there is an underlying condition causing these irregularities and how to treat it if possible.

[Paxiled]

You can tell if you have a fungus by how they look, they will get thick and doubled up and really gnarly, but to diagnose that all you need to do is see a doctor.  There are many ways to treat nail fungus, so you can choose how you want to do that but first you need to know if you have one.