Have Peeling Skin Around Nails. Not On Any Medication. Should I Consult A Dermatologist?

Posted on Wed, 17 Apr 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 Answered on

Thu, 9 May 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : My skin is getting peeled off near my nails. This is mostly happening to my left hand thumb and left hand pointer finger. Sometimes I am getting even blood out of there(not drops, very little). Mostly those wounds get cured in a week, but the skin comes off from another nail. This is happening to me from the last one year or so. In some season it happens less often and in some other season it happens more often. I have not used any medicine for this. I am not taking any medicine now. I didn’t take it seriously before as I thought this is a trivial thing. Do you suggest me to consult a dermatologist or will it go if I take any anti biotic / vitamin tablet. I am attaching the photo of my fingers with this query.

Answered by Dr. Kalpana Pathak (1 hour later)

Hi XXXXXXX
Thanks for sending your query to us.
I have gone through the images attached.
Your fingertips and areas around nails are fissured dry and ragged. This is known as fingertip eczema. It could be due to continuous use of any irritant factor like any particular soap, detergent, vegetable, chalk , chemical etc.
To treat the same
Use mild soap like venusia or dermadew to wash hands
Use a mild detergent like ezee liquid while washing clothes
Apply a steroid cream like lobate or clonate cream twice in a day
Apply a good moisturising cream as many times as possible( moisturex or cotaryl)

Hopefully in few days your fingertips would improve.once improvement is stop steroid application but continue with rest of the suggestions.

Hope that helps.
Take care

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar