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Is a Professional Manicure Healthy or Dangerous?
Healthy or dangerous, professional manicures and pedicures can make you feel like you are in paradise for at least a small period of time. Unfortunately, dangerous manicures can be even more dangerous than you realize – to the point of being deadly.
Most of us think that we are running a risk for simple bacterial infections when we get a manicure or pedicure - and if such an infection appears, we simply visit the doctor for medication to treat it. Unfortunately, you are also running a risk for contracting hepatitis, and in some cases, even HIV. A pleasant manicure or pedicure can quickly turn into a death sentence.
This is what happens – a customer with HIV goes to get his or her nails professionally done. The manicurist slips with one of those sharp instruments that are used, and pokes that customer, drawing blood. It’s a minor injury, and the customer may not even notice it. The manicurist places the instrument in alcohol, thinking that they are cleaning the instrument sufficiently.
You sit down at the table next, and the manicurist is having a bad day, because she nicks you with the exact same instrument. You might think that the instrument was clean because it was soaking in alcohol, but it isn’t. You’ve just been given an unhealthy does of HIV. Alcohol is not an approved or efficient sterilization substance for medical instruments, and this carries over to the instruments used by manicurists.
This doesn’t mean that you should never have another professional manicure or pedicure. What it means is that you need to use the same good sense when selecting a manicurist as you use when you select a doctor – because your health depends on your making the right selection. Find out how the shop sterilizes their instruments. Make sure that the manicurist is using a new emery board for each customer. Instead of getting a manicure right away when you enter the shop, let another customer go first, and pay close attention.
That manicure of pedicure will feel great, but if the shop or manicurist is not using safe methods and truly sterilized instruments, walk away. Those few minutes of pleasure and those beautiful nails are not worth dying over. If you can’t find a shop or a manicurist that you trust, partner up with a friend, and learn how to give each other manicures and pedicures, using your own personal instruments instead – have your friend use your instruments on your nails, and you use her instruments on her nails.
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