Wrist injuries can be detrimental to your daily life. A lot of your daily activities, including sports, involve the hands. To perform most tasks, you need your wrists to function properly.
You can address most minor wrist injuries with home remedies, such as ice therapy, rest, and light stretching. However, severe conditions, such as wrist fractures, need medical attention. Your doctor may recommend a variety of treatment options depending on the specific injury you incurred. One extremely popular treatment for wrist injuries is physical therapy.
Some of the most common wrist injuries your provider may recommend physical therapy for are:
- Sprains – overstretching or tearing of a ligament, or the fibrous band of tissue that connects bones in joints
- Fractures – broken bones, either partial or total breaks
- Tendinitis – an inflammation of the wrist tendons, or the fibrous band of tissue that connects muscles to bones
Physical Therapy for Wrist Injuries
The treatment for wrist injuries depends on your specific condition, its severity, and the symptoms you exhibit. There are many conservative treatment options, like home remedies and assistive and restrictive devices. Physical therapy is one method that proves to be highly effective. Aside from addressing your wrist injury’s cause and symptoms, the treatment can do so much more. Here’s what you can expect from physical therapy:
Promotes Healing
Physical therapy includes activities that promote healing for wrist injuries. There are many different modalities that your provider may choose from, depending on the nature of your injury. For instance, they can do manual therapy, like massage, and temperature therapy, which involves heat or cold. Other types include electrical stimulation and light therapy. There are also injury-specific components of physical therapy that can help you heal.
Relieves Pain
Physical therapy can also help with pain relief. It involves strengthening muscles, increasing blood flow, and protecting damaged and vulnerable structures. As the body becomes stronger and the injury continues to heal, most patients report less pain after several sessions. Physical therapists have a lot of massage techniques, exercises, and stretches that they teach patients to do independently.
Strengthens the Forearm and Hand
Some injuries occur because of joint and muscle weakness. With physical therapy, you’ll be able to gain strength to avoid future injuries. Alternatively, some injuries require weeks of immobility. This lack of movement can cause your wrist to significantly weaken. Your therapist can aid you in conducting strengthening exercises, starting from light exercises. Then, they will increase the intensity slowly to help you improve. Gradually, you will regain the strength lost due to the immobility.
Improves Flexibility and Range of Motion
Wrist injuries often come with stiffness due to swelling, pain, and resting the area while you recover. Fortunately, physical therapy can help relieve these issues with some exercises designed to improve flexibility and range of motion. However, these exercises aren’t just for helping you recover. They’re also used to help you gain more control over your movements to help you prevent reinjury. Like strengthening exercises, flexibility stretches also start light and easy, and then proceed to higher intensities as you and your therapist deem appropriate.
Wrist injuries can prevent you from doing even the most basic daily tasks. Symptoms like pain, stiffness, swelling, and immobility can restrict your movements and hinder you from fulfilling responsibilities. That’s why you should seek immediate treatment even if your injury feels mild or moderate.
Doctor For Trigger Finger And Other Wrist Injuries In Clinton Township, MI
There are many treatment options available for your wrist injury, and one of them is physical therapy. It can promote healing and strengthen your wrist. Physical therapy can also help prevent potential injuries to the wrist in the future. Your therapist will recommend different activities depending on your injury, its severity, and the symptoms associated with it.
If you’re looking for a doctor for a wrist injury in Clinton Township, look no further than Movement Orthopedics. We have a team of highly-skilled providers headed by board-certified orthopedic doctors who can give you the comprehensive care you deserve. If you want to know more about our services, you may contact our friendly staff at (586) 436-3785. If you want to book a consultation, you may use our secure online appointment request form.
We look forward to serving you!
