(U-WIRE) ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Evonne Maxwell has a solution for chronic nail-biters – proper nail care.

“When we’re little, we are taught how to properly brush our teeth, but very few kids get taught how to properly take care of their nails,” she said. “It’s not often that people start biting their nails at 22.”

Maxwell, owner of Natural Nails Organic Manicures and Pedicures on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, N.M., said she is a reformed nail-biter. She helps people overcome the habits of nail biting and cuticle picking and is in the process of writing a book on the subject, she said.

“There really isn’t a book out there about it,” Maxwell said.

Student Kevin Hendricks said he has been biting his nails for as long as he can remember.

“Nail biting is just a habit,” he said. “They get a little too long, and you start scratching yourself – then I bite them off.”

Maxwell ran an advertisement in the Daily Lobo on Oct. 6 searching for people who bite their nails to help her with her upcoming book. The advertisement attracted 37 respondents, she said. The volunteers could not be contacted for comment because of privacy issues.

Maxwell offers free nail care in exchange for participation in her study.

She will take before-and-after pictures of participant’s nails and document the progress each individual makes from her nail care techniques, she said.

She was inspired after starting her business about four years ago, because she was surprised at how many customers had problems with biting their nails, she said.

Maxwell likes to use a relaxed environment, like putting her clients in a recliner with soft mood music and candlelight. She also uses organic nail care products, she said.

“I let the client choose what kind of oil they want, unless it wouldn’t be good for them,” Maxwell said.

For instance, she said, using tangerine oil is not good for people with cuts or scrapes because of the citric acid.

According to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Web site, chronic onychophagia, the habit of biting the nails or cuticles, afflicts 50 percent of children between ages of 10 and 18 and 23 percent of young adults ages 18 to 22. According to the Web site, a person usually bites his or her nails in times of stress or excitement and in times of boredom or inactivity.

University of New Mexico student Suzette Cochran said she used to bite her nails when she was nervous.

“I used to bite my nails mostly when I was stressed – like when I had to take a test,” she said.

Jason Kleymann

Maxwell said the danger of nail biting comes from the risk of infection on the exposed skin left by the biting.

“Every time you have a lesion, bacteria can get in,” she said.

Cochran said she found her own way of stopping her nail-biting habit.

“I got my wisdom teeth out in July and couldn’t bite my nails then, so that’s how I stopped doing it,” she said.

Maxwell teaches a continuing education course at the university each spring on proper nail care, she said.

She emphasized nail biting as a habit, not a disorder.

“People don’t seek help about it because they think it’s some kind of problem – like an emotional problem they have,” Maxwell said. “It’s usually simply a problem that nobody has ever told them how to take care of.”

She hopes to have the book out in about a year and a half, she said.