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Toe Nails




Would you ever believe this? Nails are nothing but toughened proteins. And you might have realized or experienced that toe nails are the toughest of the lot.
This is because nails can dry up, just like skin. They can also break and get infected. Infections of toe nails are common due to unclean socks, aggressive exercises, tight footwear and walking bare foot in unclean environment.
To prevent such infections and inflammations, procedures like pedicures come to help to groom, trim and paint the nails and manage calluses.
Various tools like cuticle trimmers, nail clippers, files are used to keep the nail in shape and healthy and clean. However usage and sharing of the same tools by different people can mean sharing of infections too. Common infections like nail fungi, viruses, staph bacteria.
In fact a report by a major science journal states that over 100 bacterial skin infections in a year are caused by contaminated foot baths in nail salons. The best way to avoid this is to use the new improved contact less tools, eg gel and cream cuticle removers instead of cuticle trimmers.


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Nails have no nerves


Nails act as a buffer acting as a protective layer at the finger tips thereby enhancing sensitivity, though there are no nerve endings in the nail itself.
The growing part of the nail is the part under the skin. The average thickness at this portion of the nail is .017 inches or .43 millimeters. The growth rate of a nail is around 3 millimeters a month. Toe nails require 12 to 18 months. Some people believe that toe nails once lost, are forever, however this is not the truth. The growth rate is dependent upon age, gender, season, exercise level, diet and hereditary factors. And contrary to the popular belief nails do not grow after death, its just that the skin dehydrates and tighten, making the nails and hair appear to grow.

Toe Nails

Toe nails are produced by living cells in the toe. It consists of several parts including the nail plate, the nail bed, the cuticle, the nail folds and the lunula.
The nail bed is the skin beneath the nail plate, the cuticle is the tissue that overlaps the plate and rims the base of the nail. The nail fold is the skin fold that frames and supports the nail on three sides. The lunula is the whitish half moon at the base of the nail, and finally the matrix is the hidden part of the nail unit under the cuticle.
Toe nails grow from the matrix and are composed largely of keratin, a hardened protein, that's also found in skin and hair. As new cells grow in the matrix, the older cells are pushed out and they take on the flattened hardened form of the toe nail. The average growth rate for nails is 0.1 mm each day, thats around 1 cm in 100 days. Toe nails grow faster in young people, in males and in the summer.
So that's all about toe nails, so the next time you step into a nail bar, make sure its a clean and hygienic one.



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