Tendon Damage and Chiropractic Care

We work with our hands everyday. Whether it’s creating a piece of art or having a job that’s physically taxing, injuries to the tendons in your hands can cause immobility. Immobility usually occurs when tendons are damaged or cut. Depending on which tendons are damaged, fingers can get hard to straighten or there is no ability to make a fist.

 

Extensor tendons enable you to straighten your fingers and they stretch from the forearm down the top of your hand to your thumb and fingers. Beginning in your forearm and running through your wrist and down your palms, flexor tendons enable you to bend your fingers. Injuries to flexor tendons tend to make more of an impact to one’s lifestyle than extensor tendons.

 

Problems from overuse of your hands include:

 

• Tendon pain – Tendinosis is a condition in which there are multiple small tears in the tissue surrounding your tendons. Symptoms include a decrease in strength, restricted movement and pain.
• De Quervain’s disease – When the sheath that covers the tendon in your thumb becomes inflamed, you may develop De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. Symptoms include pain in the thumb, wrist or forearm and having trouble pouring or lifting.
• Trigger finger – When your thumb or finger feels as though it’s stuck in position, you may be experiencing trigger finger. Sometimes it causes a bump in your palm near the finger it’s affecting, or a clicking and snapping when you move. In the case of trigger finger, your flexor tendon and the sheath around it are swollen, so the tendon can’t glide smoothly.

 

Treatment

If you have damage to the tendons in your hand, it’ll become obvious from restrictions in everyday use. Visiting a chiropractor is a good way to identify the nature of the injury and develop a treatment plan.

 

Your chiropractor will probably suggest you rest the affected hand as much as possible and that you apply a cold compress to the area. You may need a splint to restrict your use of it and support the fingers involved, especially to treat extensor tendon damage. Because of their understanding of the nature of joints, muscles and tendons, reaching out to your chiropractor for assessment brings you more information and a treatment plan for recovery.

 

If you think you’re suffering from tendon damage, please call Augustine Chiropractic Wesley Chapel at 813-994-6008.