cuticle & Eponychium - confused!!

[laylah]

ok, now im getting very confused - someone please help!!when i done my extension courses i was taught that The eponychium is living tissue around the bottom of the nail, and the cuticle is the non living tissue that builds up on the nail plate and should be removed. the eponychium should not be removed as this is living tissue.........now im doing my beauty therapy NVQ and in the manicure unit which we are doing now our manicure proceedure says this:Apply cuticle removerApply cuticle knife to eponychiumclip off any excess eponychium with cuticle nippers..........and so onIs this right??? how can we be clipping living tissue away??ive also looked in my textbook (beauty therapy by Janet Simms) and theres a diagram of the nail which points to Cuticle (eponychium) and cuticle (perionychium) which has just confused me even more!!!! i thought the cuticle was not the eponychium?the textbook also says the main part of the cuticle is the perionychium and the eponychium is the less significant part of dead skin tissues which lies beneath the perionychium and adheres to the nail plate??someone please clear this up for me!! very confused!!

 

[The Geek]

Someone has really screwed up some terminology.

1- Eponychium is living tissue. Since when did Nail Professionals become sanctioned to remove living tissue? Hell, why would you want to? All you will end up doing is causing scar tissue to form whilst leaving the front door open for a Paronychia infection.
2- The cuticle is an epidermal layer of tissue that is shed from the underside of the proximal fold. As the nail plate grows, it appears from under the eponychium with the cuticle attached. Eventually the cuticle dries out and flakes off.
3- The Perionychium is a broad term for 'all the freaking skin around the nail' which includes lateral folds, eponychium and the hyponychium (even the nail bed depending on what paper you are reading).

Anyhoooo - I hope this helps to clear up some confusion

 

[laylah]

thank you SOOOO MUCH!!this has made it alot clearer to me, every book i read says something different!thanks again x

 

[laylah]

do you mind if i print that and ask my tutor about it and why she has told us to cut and nipp the eponychium? surely she should not be teaching us this.thanks again

 

[extensionten]

:idea: this helped me too - cheers samuel.....

 

[nailzoo]

i thought the dead stuff on the nail plate around the cuticle was called pterygium

 

[izzidoll]

i thought the dead stuff on the nail plate around the cuticle was called pterygium

I was originally taught this as well......but no! the dead stuff i.e non living tissue is actually the cuticle, and what some people call their cuticle is the eponychium fold....

Pterygium is an abnormal growth of skin....and can be Dorsal Pterygium on the front of the nail and is usually caused by a severe trauma...the skin attaches to the nail and growths with it stretching as it does so......I have only seen pictures of it and it was a burn victim...

Inverse Pterygium is at the hyponichium and the skin attaches to the nail at the free edge and also gets stretched as the nails grows causing quite a bit of pain!!.....both should really be seen by a doctor and should not be cut by a manicurist.......I have seen on this site that using cuticle remover on inverse pterygium can cause it to shrink back in less severe cases, which are usually caused by an allergic reaction through overexposure...........phew... here endeth the sciency bit!!

AND I was taught initially to pronounce it Ter-i-gee-um....but for some reason it now gets pronounced ter-i-jay-um....with a soft g...Go figure!!

 

[geeg]

i thought the dead stuff on the nail plate around the cuticle was called pterygium

ah ... No ... it's not.

Here is an excerpt from the prep chapter of 'nailcalss' that should put everyone straight.

Preparation is one part of the nail service that cannot and must not be rushed. Thorough PREP will take the most time of any part of the whole service; application and finishing will take much less time proportionally. Preparation is all about removing cuticle from the nail plate.

There is much confusion as to just what cuticle is. It is referred to as: True cuticle, non-living tissue, pterygium, and probably many more things, all misleading. Some think the eponychium is the cuticle. Let’s define.

Cuticle is made up of exfoliated skin cells from the folds of skin surrounding the nail unit. Cuticle is non-living. Cuticle is NOT pterygium (which is an over growth of skin cells). Cuticle is not the eponychium (which is living skin surrounding the base of the nail unit). Cuticle is not ‘true cuticle’ as opposed to false cuticle, it IS cuticle.

If the cuticle is not regularly removed or rubbed off in some way, then it will build up and stick together until it almost looks like a membrane which is growing from under the eponychium … but it is not growing and it is not living, it is just building up until such time as it is removed.

 

[kittenclaws]

i thought the dead stuff on the nail plate around the cuticle was called pterygium

the eponychium is the visible part of the skin fold thet apears to end at the base of the nail plate.
the sides of the body of the nail are bordered by curved fold of skin known as the lateral nail folds or walls, this seal is similar to the hyponycium and eponychium and is sometimes known as hte perionychium, (blimey i have confused myself now)
the cuticle is the transparent dead skin layer that sheds from beneath the eponychium, builds up and hitches a ride down the nail plate, it is not live and as such can be removed, hth

 

[ValencianNails]

well... you learn something new everyday eh?
thanks for the explanations

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Are hang nails (the bits of skin at the side walls that I love to have a pick at :o ) extended from the cuticle or the eponychium, or are they something else altogether?

 

[kittenclaws]

Are hang nails (the bits of skin at the side walls that I love to have a pick at :o ) extended from the cuticle or the eponychium, or are they something else altogether?

as far as i know they are the eponychium, hth (and ive got to admit im a picker aswell but only when i dont have nail extensions on )

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Thanks Tracy, I thought it was that, but I got myself so darned confused and then unconfused reading through this lot that I just wanted it confirming. I apply solar oil very regualrly and it still hasn't stopped them, is there anything else I can do to prevent them?

 

[scattyfox]

Hi sassy i suffer with these and use a combination of rejuvenation and olar oil am hand nail free at the moment
HTH

 

[Sassy Hassy]

Hi sassy i suffer with these and use a combination of rejuvenation and olar oil am hand nail free at the moment
HTH

Cheers hun! Damn I was over at the OSNS today I could have picked some rejuvenation up (mind they were so limited on stock they may not have had any anyway)

 

[kittenclaws]

Thanks Tracy, I thought it was that, but I got myself so darned confused and then unconfused reading through this lot that I just wanted it confirming. I apply solar oil very regualrly and it still hasn't stopped them, is there anything else I can do to prevent them?

stop picking, lol only joking,
i have found that aswell as useing solar oil i use solar balm and this has helped loads as i think it is a bit more intense, i use oil in the morning and balm in the evening, hth

 

[debs81]

We were taught that if there is excess eponychium then we were to cut it down with the nippers. I feel terrible now. we remove the cutlicle too with remover and orange stick etc but we were definately told to remove excess eponychium.Told you my vtct course was naff!!!!

debs

 

[kittenclaws]

blimey, did they tell you to offer anisthetic with that? i cant believe some of the ways people are taught

We were taught that if there is excess eponychium then we were to cut it down with the nippers. I feel terrible now. we remove the cutlicle too with remover and orange stick etc but we were definately told to remove excess eponychium.Told you my vtct course was naff!!!!

debs

 

[fiona wallace]

I am constantly amazed that colleges manage to train us to 'surgeon level' we really should be demanding mech more in wages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Zuise.e]

We were taught that if there is excess eponychium then we were to cut it down with the nippers. I feel terrible now. we remove the cutlicle too with remover and orange stick etc but we were definately told to remove excess eponychium.Told you my vtct course was naff!!!!

debs

I don't understand what "excess eponychium" is. I did my basic manicure course yesterday and have to admit I was frightened to use the nippers in case I nipped something living - If it's a small piece of skin sticking up after clearing the "gunk" is it ok to nip that? sorry for my lack of proper vocab!