What Are Toe Nails For?

Toenail: A toenail is produced by living skin cells in the toe. A toenail consists of several parts including the smash plate (the visible role of the nail), the nail bed (the skin beneath the boom plate), the cuticle (the tissue that overlaps the plate and rims the base of the nail), the nail folds (the skin folds that frame and support the nail on iii sides), the lunula (the whitish half-moon at the base of the nail) and the matrix (the subconscious part of the nail unit of measurement under the cuticle).

Toenails grow from the matrix. The nails are composed largely of keratin, a hardened poly peptide (that is also in pare and hair). As new cells abound in the matrix, the older cells are pushed out, compacted and take on the familiar flattened, hardened form of the toenail.

The average growth rate for nails is 0.1 mm each day (or 1 centimeter in 100 days). The verbal rate of nail growth depends on numerous factors including the age and sex of the individual and the fourth dimension of year. Toenails more often than not grow faster in young people, in males, and in the summer. Toenails grow more slowly than fingernails.

Ingrown toenails are common particularly on the big (peachy) toe. The corner of the nail curves downward into the pare due to mistrimming of the blast or shoes that are too tight. An ingrown toenail tin can be painful and atomic number 82 to infection.