What keeps your nails attached and how is it so strong?
In: Biology
A more simple way to understand it. If you have ever seen anyone with longer nails, they can push down on the tip, also called the free edge, and you can see where the nail is actually produced. This is called the Nail Matrix. Inside, the nail is made up of very soft, wet keratin that doesn’t get hard until it is exposed to air. As the nail begins to grow out of the matrix, past the cuticle, the surface begins to harden, but it is still attached to the digit because it’s built this way. The nail will continue to push up until it gets to the free edge, where it becomes unattached.
So, it’s more that the nail is attached because it’s made that way. There are things that can interfere with this. Damage to the nail plate, this can be permanent, or damage to the matrix. Matrix damage can stop producing a nail all together.
The worst problem I’ve ever come across was in my local paper, years ago. A woman who had in-expensive acrylic nails had her pointer finger nail ripped off, almost the entire nail. She was rushed to the emergency room, losing a lot of blood, and in excruciating pain. They had to give her two numbing shots in the nail bed, as the nerve block didn’t even touch the pain. It took 3 months for the nail to cover the worst of it.
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