A Louisiana mother’s warning to parents everywhere about the dangers of nail biting has gone viral, and when you see it, you’ll understand why.
While it’s a habit of many children and even some adults to nibble away nervously at their fingernails, Sara’s clip of her son Kale is sure to deter many.
“Looking in Kale’s mouth I see something white in his gums,” she writes on a video posted to YouTube, which now has over 250,000 views.
She continues: “I get a tweezer and pull it. It looked like a finger nail. I continued to pull 4 more out. I then search his mouth and find another area. I pulled around 27 out of the second spot. YES 27!”
Sara and her family’s dentist were able to hypothesise that young Kale plays with the bitten chunks of nail with his tongue before pushing them into a pocket of gum between his baby teeth and adult teeth.
According to the Academy of General Dentistry, the unhygienic habit can cause the children or adults who bite their nails to crack, chip or wear down their front teeth from the stress caused by nibbling.
Not only this, but the spread of bacteria from other body parts to the mouth can cause sore, damaged and torn gums, as Sara’s video shows.
She finishes her cautionary tale with a spot of advice for other parents, saying: “Don’t let your children bite their nails!”
Watch the video above
