Wrist pain can be one of the most persistent and annoying types of pain a person can experience. You never really know how much you depend on your wrists until pain prevents you from using your wrist like you normally would.
The wrist is a complex combination of muscle, bone, tendons, and ligaments. The most frequent causes of wrist pain are sprains, repetitive movement, age, and sports injuries. The Daily Telegraph reported that 66,000 people in Britain injured their wrists severely simply by attempting to open packaging on jars and boxes.
Many people feel that just not using their wrist for a while will end their wrist pain. The tactic usually does not work for two reasons. The extent of the injury is not known. Not using your muscles for a period of time can actually produce greater pain. The natural anti-inflammatory chemicals produced by the body need physical movement to help get them out of an injured area. No movement allows the chemicals to linger in an injured area longer and produce more pain.
Age and exertion can cause wrist pain. The natural lubricants and hormones that protect bones and connective tissue from injury decrease with age. Repetitive use of the wrist in work or sports can produce injury that causes wrist pain. People that do physical labour have a higher instance of wrist injury.
Determining the true cause of any type of wrist pain requires specialized instruments that can look at the injury in exacting detail. Magnetic resonance imaging and X-rays are the most frequently used tools that physicians that are experts in wrist pain use to determine the exact nature of an injury and the best course of treatment.
The most common causes of wrist pain include sprains, arthritis, dislocations of the bones, broken bones, osteoarthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, inflamed or irritated tendons, inflammation of the sheath that protects tendons and keeps tendons lubricated, gout, and bursitis.
Medical science has developed specific methods of dealing with each cause of wrist pain. The treatment naturally depends on the source of the problem. Temporary relief from severe pain can be achieved using pain killing drugs. The use of narcotics for long periods of time as a pain relief remedy is not considered wise due to the potential for addiction.
Sprains can be treated with ice packs and braces. A regimen of gentle exercise helps speed the healing of a wrist sprain. Carpal tunnel syndrome can be effectively treated and cured with a change in the way a person holds their wrist during a repeated activity and with exercise that strengthens the muscles and tendons that cause the pain. Severe cases of carpal tunnel syndrome require surgery.
Relief from inflamed tendons can be achieved though medication and exercise. Gout, arthritis, and osteoarthritis usually require drug therapy and a specialized regimen of exercise that gradually increase the range of motion in the wrist.
Any wrist injury or ailment that causes pain can produce a disability if left untreated. Many people in Britain have been forced to give up their favourite sport, become dependent on other people for normal daily chores, and have even been forced to go on the dole due to untreated wrist pain.
Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. If you think that wrist pain will go away eventually you can expect more pain and potentially more severe injury.
When you first feel wrist pain you need to call London Physio or visit our website www.londonphysio.co.uk – Expertise in wrist injury, affordable treatment options that work, and a long history of dealing with wrist pain in all of its many forms makes these experts your first choice in dealing with wrist pain.
