Manicure and Hygiene
Manicure and hygiene are not always related things. Because beauty is beauty, but meticulous microbiologists tell us the following. Regarding artificial nails, research results are roughly unanimous: among nurses who wore artificial nails, the amount of gram-negative bacteria under the nails was higher than among colleagues with "natural" nails.
In similar studies it was shown that although the total number of bacteria under the nails in the two studied groups did not differ statistically, under artificial nails there were more bacteria from pathogenic groups. In addition, wearing artificial nails increases the risk of tearing medical gloves.
Therefore, at least for surgical department staff and those dealing with immunocompromised patients, it is not recommended to wear artificial nails.
What about other types of manicure?
When applying regular nail polish, microbial contamination of the hands is roughly the same as with hands without manicure. However, it increases when the polish begins to peel, and also after the fourth day after application.
Today, gel nail coverings are also popular.
Recent studies30674-6/fulltext) did not show an increased number of microorganisms in owners of gel manicures compared to those without it. However, the authors state that gel nails are harder to clean, especially using alcohol-based hand gels used by medical staff and others.
That is, with gel coatings, the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfection procedures may decrease, which inevitably raises concerns and recommends avoiding gel manicures in cases of heightened infection risk.
The same applies to jewelry — rings, bracelets may interfere with proper skin cleaning, creating additional moisture zones and places for microorganisms to accumulate.
Incidentally, in food production facilities, for these reasons, as well as to prevent foreign objects from entering food products, wearing jewelry and "artificial" manicure is prohibited.
Canadian researchers on this issue, after detailed analysis of data and existing recommendations, came to the conclusion that wearing a wedding band and clear nail polish without damage and cracks can be considered safe in general, but avoiding jewelry and manicure may be the safest option and a desirable measure to prevent the spread of infections by medical workers.
About health not only of patients but of nails as well
"Removal" of old gel coating by mechanical methods may lead to weakening, brittleness, and thinning of the nail plate, and fairly prolonged action of solvents negatively affects the skin of the hands and is a source of not-too-beneficial vapors.
Therefore, it is recommended to resort to this [not constantly, but only occasionally].
Also, note that polymerization of nail polish-gel uses lamps that emit ultraviolet A at quite high intensity. Therefore, do not forget to apply sunscreen to the hands with SPF at least 30 about 20 minutes before the polymerization stage.
Although studies show that the intensity of UV exposure during manicure every two weeks may not be high enough to significantly increase the risk of skin cancer, photodamage has not been canceled — the youth of your hands is worth protecting with creams containing SPF of at least 30 in such cases.
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