What Causes Horizontal Ridges On Thumb Nails?

Posted on Fri, 2 Oct 2015

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

Fri, 2 Oct 2015 Answered on

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : I have horizontal ridges across my thumbnails.ive had them a long time.they grow through ridged sometimes a lot worse than others also sometimes on my other fingernails especially my third finger on either hand

Answered by Dr. Ronald Schubert (7 hours later)

Brief Answer:
ridges on nails

Detailed Answer:
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You have notice horizontal ridges on your nails. This ridges are due to growth abnormalities of the nail matrix. Sometimes this occurs with nutritional deficiencies and with anemias. In your case it could be related to iron deficiency anemia. If you have already tried iron supplementation and not noticed any changes then the problem is the nail matrix is abnormal. There is nothing that can be done to correct this problem.

If you send an image of your nails I may be better able to help with your problem

I hope I answered your question. Please contact us again if you have any further questions

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