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If you’ve ever chewed on your nails out of boredom, your mind might wander to a darker scenario straight out of a Stephen King story. What if you kept chewing? What if you escalated to biting? Would it be anatomically and psychologically feasible to sever your own finger? How about someone else’s finger?
This is a debate that has taken over TikTok, where some people argue that biting off a finger is as simple as biting through a carrot. The truth: Yes, it’s possible to bite off a finger, but it’s far from easy like eating a vegetable, and doing so to your own finger would involve a great deal of pain. Let’s get insights from an expert.
A Bone-Chilling Game
Unlike soft tissues like an earlobe, biting through a finger means dealing with the finger bones, known as phalanges (plural) or phalanx (singular). While it’s relatively easy to bite through arteries, tendons, and skin, the bones in the hand are quite strong. “They’re probably about the size of a small Sharpie in width,” says Karan Desai, MD, a hand surgeon at Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute. “The three bones are connected by joints and are pretty thick—around a centimeter. They’re solid bone. The younger you are, the harder they are.”
Despite the difficulty, it’s still possible to bite through them, according to Desai, although it's far easier for animals than humans. “We see this more with animal bites,” he says, mentioning alligators among the culprits in his practice. (It is Florida, after all.) “It takes significant force to fully sever a finger. We often see complete finger amputations due to dog bites. So, it is possible for a human, but it would require someone with extreme ferocity to bite with that kind of power.”
This is why finger amputations—referred to as finger avulsions—are more commonly caused when an attacker manages to bite through the joint connecting the phalanges, bypassing the need to bite through bone. “It’s much easier to bite through a joint. If you try to bite through bone, you’d need to fracture it first and then tear it off. That would be much harder,” says Desai.
Finger Snacks
Desai has encountered numerous cases of human bites involving fingers, many of which have gained media attention. In September 2009, a 65-year-old man named William Rice was taking part in a demonstration in Thousand Oaks, California, opposing government healthcare reform. Supporters of the reform were also there. Things escalated, and as Rice would later confess to authorities, he punched a man in the face. “I hit him in the nose,” Rice told reporters.
The man didn’t take kindly to this. A fight broke out, and soon after, Rice was left bleeding from his hand, staring at his own severed pinky finger, which had been bitten off completely.
Similar incidents have been reported in Fargo, North Dakota, where a bar customer allegedly bit off the tip of a bartender’s finger in 2022; Plymouth, Massachusetts, where a golfer had a finger bitten off on the 18th hole in 2018; and Tavares, Florida, where a man in a park bit off a victim’s finger up to the knuckle in 2022.
For those seeking photographic proof, there’s a 1999 case study in the British Dental Journal, which documented a bar fight resulting in an avulsion. (Be warned, the image of a severed finger with exposed neurovascular bundles is not for the faint of heart.)
When such attacks happen, Desai explains, the severing is typically due to the use of molars rather than the canine or incisor (front) teeth. “Molars are designed more for crushing. The canines and incisors in the front are better suited to biting through tissue. You would need to pass through skin, soft tissue, tendons, and then clamp down and rip through the rest. It would be hard to use the canine or incisors to bite through the bone completely; you’d have to be tearing,” he explains.
Small-Scale Improvement
Biting off a finger is certainly not the same as biting through a carrot. It involves more of a clamp-and-tear action, leading to a messy injury that can be challenging to treat. “This is called replantation, reattaching the finger,” explains Desai. “If you think about slicing your finger with a sushi knife, where it’s cut clean through, the chances of success are much higher compared to something that’s torn or bitten off. The tearing pulls out small blood vessels, making it difficult to reconstruct them.”
One advantage of human bites over animal bites: Humans typically don’t consume the finger, leaving the possibility of reattachment. Desai says that surgeons will attempt replantation if the finger is crucial for hand function, such as the thumb. If it’s not critical or just a small portion, some surgeons might focus on controlling infection—an especially high-risk concern with both human and animal bites—rather than proceeding with reattachment surgery.
Even with reattachment, regaining full function is unlikely, and sensation will likely be impaired. The primary goal in this type of surgery is to restore enough sensation to alert the person to pain or burning.
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of losing a finger, choose the index finger. “It’s relatively dispensable,” says Desai. “It’s useful, but if you lose it, the middle finger compensates very well. It takes over the role of the index finger. The ring and pinky fingers are mainly used for grip. When making a tight fist, the index and middle fingers work fine with the thumb. If the index is lost, the middle finger can still perform fine motor tasks, such as holding a pencil or pen.”
Is It Possible to Bite Off Your Own Finger?
Biting off someone else’s finger, while socially unacceptable, is quite different from biting off your own. Desai has never witnessed such an event and is unsure of what it would entail.
“It’s possible,” he says. “I would suspect a psychiatric history if someone were to bite their own finger off. If you’re mentally sound and don’t have any psychological issues, the pain would likely stop you from going any further. You wouldn’t be able to complete the bite. But if you’re not in a normal state, perhaps under the influence of something, then it could happen.”
