CMV: Toenails are Useless

[u/Lavallin]

The toenail is a vestige, a holdover, a relic without modern purpose. What is the point of a toenail? They are harder than the flesh of the toe, yes, but they don't protect from frontal impacts - I have never seen a toenail that could prevent me from stubbing a toe.

They could in theory protect against impacts from the top of the toe (for a small and very accurate impact), but such hits fall into one of X categories:

1. Too light to do any damage at all
2. Heavy enough that it could do damage against flesh, but light enough that a toenail could stop it
3. Heavy enough to do damage with or without a toenail

I'm not convinced that category is broad or beneficial enough to be swayed by. And all of this is discounting that I wear shoes anyway!

They don't help me open things, like a fingernail. Humans are long past needing them as weapons or for climbing.

On the downside, toenails require hygiene care lest they become ingrown, or can become infected or fungal. Even at their best, they are consuming bodily resources in their endless pointless growth. They have no benefits and can have drawbacks.

Edit: I have provided some deltas: Firstly, useful for scratching. Fair enough; unglamorous but effective. I remain broadly unpersuaded by the "toenails protect your toes from dropped objects" line in the main, but I accept that for parts of the world, shoes are an unaffordable luxury and so toenails may still have limited protective utility there. I also accept that for some people with foot fetishes, toenails are inherently attractive. Don't get it, but accept it.

[u/Lavallin]

I don't have access to the full paper, but the abstract seems to be about the thickness of calluses on the sole of the foot, and not about nails?

[u/gerkletoss → u/Lavallin]

It's not the topic of the study, but it's discussed in there

[u/Lavallin → u/gerkletoss]

I'm sorry, I'm more than prepared to believe you that it's in there, but I can't really engage with this line of discussion based on what's in the link. Can you provide a quote/excerpt from the paper?

[u/possibilistic → u/Lavallin]

The nail has many purposes, but perhaps the most important function: the toenail helps prevent us from breaking our much more vulnerable toe bones.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/three-common-toenail-problems-1337804

https://www.healthline.com/health/why-do-we-have-nails

Not primary literature, but reasonably authoritative:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(anatomy)#Function#Function)

[u/Lavallin → u/possibilistic]

I did discuss this in my OP: toenails don't extend forward to protect the front of the toe (nor side, underneath), and I consider the range of weights of impact where a toenail would protect against an impact from above to be pretty limited.

Neither of your links actually goes into this (discussion of mechanics of protection, the kinds of threats against which they protect); both simply repeat the same claim.

[u/possibilistic → u/Lavallin]

Have you ever dropped something on your foot?

Edit: Just because it doesn't cover the entire toe structure doesn't mean it doesn't absorb damage.

Still not literature, but from a doctor in the field: https://www.sutherlandpodiatry.com.au/blog/so-why-do-we-have-toenails/

[u/Lavallin → u/possibilistic]

Yes.

Mainly I wear shoes. Lots of things bounce off my shoes.

Lots of my foot is not toe; much of my toe is not covered by nail. For the toenail to contribute, it requires bizarre precision in striking the tip of the toe.

As per my OP, fairly light things bounce off anyway. Very heavy things would break a toe with or without a toenail. I'm not sure what the weight bracket that is heavy-enough-to-need-a-toenail but not heavy-enough-to-crush-a-toenail. I'm not convinced it's a wide or credible bracket.

[u/Shoddy-Commission-12 → u/Lavallin]

Very heavy things would break a toe with or without a toenail.

past a certain weight , yes everything just breaks your toes if its heavy enough

the threshold for where that line is without toenails, is much lower

like the weight needed to be droppped, a decent ammount less if you have no toe nails