Overgrown Cuticles

[Cathie!]

I had one of my lead clients in today for a mini mani....couldn't convert her at the time, but she has rebooked for 2 weeks.

She has extremely overgrown skin over the natural nail...well cuticles in laymans terms (what is the correct term for this? lateral fold????)....anyway, it is half way up her nail plate on many fingers.

I advised her that the only way we can rid her of this anomoly is by massage and exfoliation....not by pushing back vigourously and cutting off what's left.

Well as they always do, she had products at home....didn't want to buy mine, so I advised her to massage these in to her nails and cuticles every day.... on service, after usung cuticle remover they did start to budge...

I've never had to deal with this before....what do you do when that living tissue after treatment lifts from the nail plate and becomes dead tissue? How do you get rid of it and expose the nail plate with a healthy cuticle area....without flapping bits of what used to be there.....with rejuvenator....would this skin exfoliate away?

Help is required as I told her we could rid her of this cuticle problem.....and I impressed it would take time and homework from her.

Advice welcome xxx

 

[geeg]

Regular use of solar Oil SHRINKS the eponychium !! You may not believe it, but it is true.

I used to have those rubbery overgrown eponychiums and once I wore enhancements and regularly used solar oil, they shrunk back very quickly.

She'll have to invest Cathie!! It's not a big investment now is it?

 

[FabulousFingers]

Regular use of solar Oil SHRINKS the eponychium !! You may not believe it, but it is true.

I used to have those rubbery overgrown eponychiums and once I wore enhancements and regularly used solar oil, they shrunk back very quickly.

She'll have to invest Cathie!! It's not a big investment now is it?

Well i'll be, you learn somthing new everyday.I'll have to put it in my little book of notes that I keep for future reference.

 

[Cathie!]

She will have to invest and I'm sure at her next visit she will, she was lovely, a nurse at a GP practice and very concious of her fingers and nails, she really enjoyed her visit to the salon hence her re-booking (from a freebie to a full priced appointment).....honestly though, with this skin grown up half the nail plate will it truly shrink and disappear to nothing?...Doubting Thomas here as I have never seen this before.

It was obviously living tissue as I could see capillaries on some of the skin on the nails.

She did say that she has tried in the past to help herself and said that from my mini-mani today, that she had been trying too hard in pushing this skin back so much that it hurt. I did say to her that it will take time and as I said before 'homework'...is key!

I really do hope that I can help as this is my real first natural nail client with a problem to solve.

PS I was going to say eponichium....but I never thought an eponichum could be so large!

 

[1999judy]

Do you mean that the proximal nail fold is stuck to the cuticle and is sort of dragging it with it? Is the skin split or is it just thick, can the nail fold be lifted easily?

 

[Cathie!]

Do you mean that the proximal nail fold is stuck to the cuticle and is sort of dragging it with it? Is the skin split or is it just thick, can the nail fold be lifted easily?

It's stuck to the nail plate via cuticle badly....looks like it has just grown up on the nail plate over time and is very thick, severely overgrown....after treating with aha cuticle remover it did start to lift slightly and I mean slightly but nothing I could do in one treatment to improve it.

edit...proximal...closest to....lateral....at the side....distal....furthest away....should really have got the hang of this by now!!!

 

[1999judy]

It's stuck to the nail plate via cuticle badly....looks like it has just grown up on the nail plate over time and is very thick, severely overgrown....after treating with aha cuticle remover it did start to lift slightly and I mean slightly but nothing I could do in one treatment to improve it.

You're doing fine. Rome wasn't built in a day and these babies have been nurtured for quite a while by the sound of things. Be really gentle and don't break the seal because an infection is possible. With regular manis and loads of oil it will happen, but not straight away. The skin can be removed with nippers eventually but you've got to be really careful.
If she buys some oil and uses it at least twice a day you will see an improvement by the next visit.

 

[Cathie!]

Cheers hun.....as I said I am a doubting Thomas and as I have never actually dealt with it in such a severe case, I can't in my head see the results until they happen, although I know the theory :hug:

 

[nailsbydesign]

I had a client with the same thing it almost looked like she had elastic bands across her nails as the grown down eponychium was so thick, I managed to persuaded her to try CND Cuticle eraser and solar oil together ....she had been using another make of both products and it had done zilch, so it took a bit of persuading, but she did buy them both from me....she was due to get married a few weeks later and so she went to town on her nails with both products using the oil every time she thought about it which she admitted was VERY regularly and used the cuticle eraser every night and morning using a nail brush to clean the nails twice daily before putting on the eraser....within 2 weeks her nails looked twice the length they were at the beginning, as the eponychium had shrunk right back and even I was surprised just how quickly it had happened....she was delighted and has since recommended the treatment to all her friends. So it just takes determination from the client, 2 great CND products and the nails WILL change for the better.

 

[mynails13]

Do any of you think this might be the Nail Disorder called Dorsal Pterigium? Especially if the capillaries are there and everything? I've only seen it in my books!

 

[Cathie!]

Do any of you think this might be the Nail Disorder called Dorsal Pterigium? Especially if the capillaries are there and everything? I've only seen it in my books!

This did cross my mind, however I was of the understanding that dorsal pterygium is very painful and not even basic manicuring would be possible......and comments on this welcome

 

[geeg]

She will have to invest and I'm sure at her next visit she will, she was lovely, a nurse at a GP practise and very conscious of her fingers and nails, she really enjoyed her visit to the salon hence her re-booking (from a freebie to a full priced appointment).....honestly though, with this skin grown up half the nail plate will it truly shrink and disappear to nothing?...Doubting Thomas here as I have never seen this before.

Ah ... but I have, many times!! Would I lie to you? I'd never tell you something worked it it didn't. It worked on me ... mine were just as you described when I first had enhancements done ... you would never believe it now to look at them. It has worked on many many clients of mine as well because actually, many bad nail biters are like this.

 

[scattyfox]

This did cross my mind, however I was of the understanding that dorsal pterygium is very painful and not even basic manicuring would be possible......and comments on this welcome

Dorsal pterygium is normally wing shaped and is really noticeable my step mom has it and it grows like a bat wing up her nail bed very weird to see.

 

[portnus]

I would say this is Pterygium - no?

 

[nailsbydesign]

I would say this is Pterygium - no?

Pterygium is a very mis-used word and a lot of people get confused by it....When I did my initial training I was told that cuticle/dead tissue that grows down the nailplate was called Pterygium......I have since had much better training and know that this is in fact incorrect........Pterygium is actually living tissue that is abnormal.

 

[portnus]

Pterygium is a very mis-used word and a lot of people get confused by it....When I did my initial training I was told that cuticle/dead tissue that grows down the nailplate was called Pterygium......I have since had much better training and know that this is in fact incorrect........Pterygium is actually living tissue that is abnormal.

Thanks for that info i'll remember that, what would us nail geeks do without this site?!!

xx

 

[mynails13]

Oooooo, during my training we were told the same that "cuticle" and "pterygium" were sometimes used interchangeably. Like it's not confusing enough! Good thread, guys, another learning experience! Sometimes I wish someone like ScattyFox's step mom would come by so I could check things out first hand! Weird huh??!!

 

[Cathie!]

Pterygium is a very mis-used word and a lot of people get confused by it....When I did my initial training I was told that cuticle/dead tissue that grows down the nailplate was called Pterygium......I have since had much better training and know that this is in fact incorrect........Pterygium is actually living tissue that is abnormal.

So if you go by this definition this is what my client has ????? By definition it does not have to be as severe as the cases we see in text books?

From Dr Mix...'Pterygium as it relates to the nail is the abnormal adherance of the normal skin to the nail plate and is usually caused by injury'

Or medical definition ....abnormal, winglike structure of skin.

 

[geeg]

Exerpt from 'nailclass' by gigi rouse

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.

 

[Cathie!]

Yes, but this is the living tissue that has grown up with the nail plate, it's not the non living tissue debris that gets left behind and I know what you mean about the membrane, but this is actually basically an extension of the skin of the finger growing up over the nail plate....it's still attached to the eponychium.

Or is this actually what you are describing looks like....I don't know now as I know the membrane factor and have seen it on the nail biter ....which can look pretty similar to what this lady has.....but honestly it doesn't look like just cuticle and/or membrane of non living tissue.

OK, so I'm being pedantic, but you could look at it both ways and I was asking the question about pterygium as I have been taught about inverse and dorsal.....but just plain abnormal I don't know.:hug: Also I will try and remember to get a photo next time she comes in.

Time will tell with regular use of oil and regular manicures which she has committed herself to and then I'll shut up lol!!!