In the UK, “the salons themselves were really popular here they sprung up very rapidly,” said Amanda Walsh, a senior scientist with the Emerging Infections and Zoonoses team of Public Health England. Health experts have raised concerns that, in fish spas, the fish are recycled from person to person, and the tubs may not be properly cleaned between uses. It could be due to lingering microbes from whomever’s feet were there last, versus the fish itself. While Lipner believes that the woman’s problems stemmed from the physical impact of the fish biting at the nail, she noted that there have been past reports of infections associated with fish pedicures, too.Įxperts say they’re unsure how infections might be spread through fish pedicures. Lipner was not able to identify the fish species involved in this case. However, the use of “doctor fish,” as they are also known, goes further back in other countries, such as Turkey.Īnother species of fish, which “grows teeth and can draw blood,” is sometimes mistaken for Garra rufa and used in fish pedicures, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lipner is unaware of any other such cases linked to fish spas, whose popularity seem to have drawn from unfounded claims about their health benefits, according to her report. Toenails usually grow at about 1 millimeter per month, Lipner said, so a nail can take up to a year to fully grow back. “This is not uncommon in women with a Greek foot … who wear high heels and pinpointed shoes,” Tosti said, referring to feet whose second toes are longer than the first, like Greek statues. Tosti, a former president of the European Nail Society, said the woman’s problem could be caused by something much more mundane: overlapping toes in a certain type of shoe. Antonella Tosti, the Fredric Brandt Endowed Professor of Dermatology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, wrote in an email. “I am not convinced at all that the fishes caused the problem,” Dr. Although there’s no definitive test for fish-nibble-induced toenail loss, “I think we’re fairly sure that it was the fish pedicure,” she said. Lipner said the patient had no other medical history that she could link to her abnormal toenails. In her report, Lipner describes this as a “relatively common physical examination finding” that has been linked to infections, medications, autoimmune and heritable conditions. This phenomenon, known to doctors as onychomadesis, usually results in the nail falling off long after an initial event (such as an injury) arrests nail growth. Six of the woman's toenails began to look abnormal in the months after a fish pedicure.
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