Kailey Burton
Onychorrhexis
The word onychorrhexis originates from the Greek words onycho: meaning nail, and
rhexis: meaning bursting.
Onychorrhexis is another term for Brittle Nails. This is a breakage causing
“longitudinal ridging” that could be a result of a number of things including:
Excessive amounts of strong soap and water exposure, anemia, anorexia, nail polish
remover, nail polish remover etc. It is also a result of aging.
Longitudinal ridging alone is called onychorrhexis, the appearance of split
ends of the nail is called onychoschisis
Onychorrhexis effects up to 20% of the human population.
There is no treatment for onychorrhexis unfortunately, once the skin around the
nail is healed, …show more content…
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Ptreygium will form if the matrix of the nail contains scar tissue causing the skin of
the proximal nail fold to grow out with the skin of the nail bed giving it a triangular
formation.
Ptreygium occurs due to other skin and nail disorders such as lichen
planus(“Lichen planus (LP) is a disease of the skin and/or mucous membranes
that resembles lichen. The cause is unknown, but it is thought to be the result of
an autoimmune process with an unknown initial trigger”), pemphigus vulgaris
(“Pemphigus vulgaris (PV) is a rare and serious condition that causes painful
blisters to develop on the skin as well as inside the mouth, nose, throat, anus and
genitals. The blisters are fragile and can easily burst open, leaving painful areas
of raw unhealed skin”), an injury such as a hammer or car door to the nail resulting
in the damaging of the matrix, and even poor or impaired circulation.
If this disorder is caused by a disease such as linchen planus, pemphigus etc. then
treatment of that disease should be performed. After the disease is cleared