A woman’s toenails fell off after getting a “fish pedicure”
Any time you go in for a beauty service, you assume a bit of risk. Things like a bad haircut, makeup that doesn’t quite fit your style, or a manicure that leaves nails looking less than stellar happen to everyone at some point. But we definitely expect to come out with all our body parts intact! Unfortunately for a woman who decided to indulge in the popular fish pedicure, the results turned into a nightmare when her toenails just clean fell off.
According to an article published in the journal JAMA Dermatology, and reported on by the New York Daily News, a woman in her 20s began to lose her toenails after a fish pedicure, even though she’d never had any issues with her feet or toenails before. The horror is real.
If you haven’t heard of the fish pedicure before, it involves plunging your feet into a fish tank inhabited by tiny fish called Garra rufa, or doctor fish. These little fishies normally eat plankton, but in the absence of their usual food, they nibble off the dead skin of customers who come in and hope to emerge with soft, smooth feet. The service is banned in several U.S. states as well as some Canadian provinces, but it’s available in other parts of the world.
A few months after her treatment, this woman’s toenails began falling off. The author of the original journal article, Dr. Shari Lipner, said she is certain the patient’s condition came as a direct result of the fish pedicure.
This is the first time we’ve ever heard of anyone losing their toenails as a result of a fish pedicure.
This is definitely a worst-case scenario.
A fish pedicure definitely seems enticing, but when you really think about it, it’s pretty much impossible to properly clean and disinfect a fish tank between people. Think of all the bacteria and infections that could easily be transmitted in these fish tanks.
Does this news dissuade you from getting a fish pedicure, or are you still down to let the little fishies go to town on your tootsies?
