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June 5, 2013 1:44 PM Subscribe
Worrisome developments in fingernail repair.
Yesterday my girlfriend's nail cracked just below the start of the nail bed. Rather than trim the nail and leave that exposed, she tried to fix it with cyanoacrylate nail glue. This morning she awoke to discover another crack two-thirds of the way down the bed, with the entire nail above that detached from the bed so she can lift it and look underneath. There is no pain.
What should she do? Is there a safe way to fix the nail? Is the bed permanently damaged somehow? And why did this happen in the first place? (Extra info: her nails have always been brittle, but cracks near the top of the bed have been happening a lot lately.)
Yesterday my girlfriend's nail cracked just below the start of the nail bed. Rather than trim the nail and leave that exposed, she tried to fix it with cyanoacrylate nail glue. This morning she awoke to discover another crack two-thirds of the way down the bed, with the entire nail above that detached from the bed so she can lift it and look underneath. There is no pain.
What should she do? Is there a safe way to fix the nail? Is the bed permanently damaged somehow? And why did this happen in the first place? (Extra info: her nails have always been brittle, but cracks near the top of the bed have been happening a lot lately.)
Nail damage can indicate serious health problems...or it can be something benign. I would advise her to go to the doctor to make sure that it is not something serious, or, if it is, to get treatment for it.
posted by dfriedman at 2:07 PM on June 5, 2013
posted by dfriedman at 2:07 PM on June 5, 2013
Seconding dfriedman... if she doesn't need a referral I would go straight to the dermatologist, they treat nails as well as skin.
posted by telegraph at 2:13 PM on June 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by telegraph at 2:13 PM on June 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
When this happened to me I got treatment from a dermatologist. I originally went to a GP and had a horrible experience, so I wish I had just gone straight to a derm. In my case it was caused by nail fungus and she prescribed pills that cleared it up in six weeks. I had it on my toes, too, though.
posted by Violet Hour at 2:27 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Violet Hour at 2:27 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
Yeah, a nail detaches from the nail bed and there's no pain? Sounds like fungus. See a dermatologist pronto.
posted by workerant at 2:49 PM on June 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by workerant at 2:49 PM on June 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
Does she take a multivitamin/multimineral supplement?
Whenever I forget to take mine for a period of time, the difference is so dramatic that I can see it in the bands of thin nail material (bracked on either side by thicker nail material formed while I was taking my vitamins regularly) that slowly move towards my finger tips over time and then crack and peel once they reach the outside.
A simple Centrum chewable taken daily is enough to keep my nails hard and healthy.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:14 PM on June 6, 2013
Whenever I forget to take mine for a period of time, the difference is so dramatic that I can see it in the bands of thin nail material (bracked on either side by thicker nail material formed while I was taking my vitamins regularly) that slowly move towards my finger tips over time and then crack and peel once they reach the outside.
A simple Centrum chewable taken daily is enough to keep my nails hard and healthy.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:14 PM on June 6, 2013
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She should check in with her doctor for some standard tests for both.
Has she embraced vegan/vegitarianism? I got very anemic and sick from a vegitarian diet and a hemotologist-oncologist shrugged his shoulders and told me "eat meat."
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:54 PM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]