PREVENTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a repair set for mending corrupt or broken fingernails, and more precisely to such a system containing means of preventing ony- chophagia.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The tended visual appearance of a person is considered to indicate social standards and values - it at least proves a tended lifestyle, and historically, that this person would not have to perform hard manual work. Besides fashion has interspersed fingernails with colored lacquer finish and extensions - after some predecessors in the baroque and rococo time - particularly since the "Roaring 20s" of last century.

However, all persons (even men) with irregularly growing or brittle nails, or with nail- wearing activities, might see the necessity to particularly maintain, and in case improve, their fingernails.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

Particularly for young adults with a tendency towards onichophagia it is often embarrassing to show visibly chewed fingernails, however hard it is to stop this behavior.

For young women working in offices it then suggests itself to put on artificial fin- gernails , as known e .g . from US 06/752 ,687 or DE 3620568 A 1 , particularly since their different taste and consistency facilitate the discharge of this habit.

This however is often rejected - in particular in Europe - as too "kinky" . Particularly for young men artificial nails appear inapplicable, since their social environment might identify their use with deviating sexual orientation. In all these cases a naturally working extension of corrupt fingernails might be recommended.

PRIOR ART

Hitherto there are two methods commonly applied for repairing and extending fingernails:

1. Mold-Technique with plastic or paper templates.

These are fixed around the finger tip and a gel is applied on it, hardening the template at ultraviolet radiation.

The disadvantage is in the rigid moulds of the templates, that cannot be adapted to every kind of nail.

However, if not matching the exact form of the nail, templates tend to slip easily. This causes more material usage and more necessary grinding.

2. Extension with plastic tips.

These are put on with a tip adhesive - usually a fast hardening cyanoacrylate - to the upper third of the nail,

Then the mended surface is filed down until the splice is nearly invisible and the entirely nail is as well filled with gel. The tip consequently becomes rigid and inflexible, and longitudinal cracks will appear with rising tension on the surface.

Besides, available adhesives often prove to show insufficient hold with long-term wear.

Along with this technique quite a few other methods are taught for smoothing, reinforcement and extension of fingernails, particularly in the US after WW II.

Since recent times a few new systems areknown, which work without complete artificial nails, as disclosed in US 4.299.234, similarly in US 4.450.848, and as well in US 4.860.774 and US 6,227206.

However, these systems mainly refer to the application of acrylic materials, particularly on gels of cyanoacrylates or polyester without UV curing, as well as on preformed auxiliary bodies, as e.g. pre-cut nail forms made of polyurethane ma- terials. The problem of onychophagia is as well adressed with quite a few other propositions, whereas with mostly poor effect. A common means is nail polish containing a denaturating agent, as sold in phar- macies.

The drawback however is, that this is just a restrictive method that does not ameliorate the visual appearance of the nail.

Moreover, with all commonly known products the lay-up is easily visible, thus commonly limiting its application on children by their parents, without the kid's consent.

Being easily removable, e.g. when scratching wet sand, it is obvious that the effect tends to be quite temporal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The idea of my invention therefore is to provide an invisible, individually adaptable completion of chewed nails to natural appearance, and an adjunctive way to get rid of onychophagia quite easily.

Therefore prepregs for nailtips are provided, consisting of glass fiber coth and preformed for different kinds of nailbeds, whereas the front tips are easily cut to desired shape, thus to match individual shape and taste. These do not require much grinding later, since the glass fibers are well imbedded within the matrix material.

Hardness and resilience are provided with an overlay of UV-curing gel, that additionally contains denaturating agents.

These may be shellac compounds, but other means like methylenethylenecetones, petroleum ether, toluol and cyclohexane or spruce resin are either applicable. Furthermore phthalicacid-diethylen-ether, thymol, diethyl ether and butanol in combination with isopropanol or denatoniumbenzoate may be used.

As against hitherto known prior art, the heredisclosed solution gives positive prospect to the applicant, when being relieved of the disgusting habit whilst the visible damage of nails is cured immediately and the natural opaque appearance of the nailbed preserved. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS One main embodiment is demonstrated in drawings Fig 1 to Fig. 3, wherein FIG. 1 shows a typical chewed nail 1 with still intact nail bed 2.

FIG. 2 shows precut fiber glass parts 3, 4 and 5 , held together by means of a light resin matrix .

FIG.3 demonstrates the lay-up of a fitting precut 6 onto the remaining piece of a nail 7 and an adequate cutoff line 8.