3 Treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Computers run about every part of our lives. If you spend most of your professional life at a computer typing, and you suffer from pain in your hands and fingers, then you may have a condition called carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that is caused when too much pressure is placed on a nerve (your carpal tunnel) in your hand. If you were to look at your hand with your palm facing up and you were to place you index and pointer finger on the nerve at the end of your hand and at the start of your wrist and apply pressure, you may experience a little bit of tingling and numbness in your fingers and hand. Why? Because this is where your carpal tunnel is. When you spend all day bending your wrists and holding your hand in positions (like typing) it places a lot of strain on that nerve which can result in carpal tunnel syndrome.

If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, you may wonder how you will ever be able to type again without losing a little bit of sensation in your fingers and hands. Luckily, here at our office, we have several treatments that we can try. Let’s take a closer look at three of the most popular treatments.

Physical Therapy

Typically when we first see patients for carpal tunnel, we will have you do some physical therapy. During physical therapy, we will teach you some stretches and exercises to help you release the pressure in that joint and get rid of some of your symptoms. The key to getting the most out of your physical therapy is to be consistent with your stretches and make sure that you do them at home everyday.

Braces

If you were to watch yourself sleeping at night, you would probably notice that you tend to sleep a lot on your hands and wrists. Even though this may help you sleep comfortably, it is also placing extra stress and pressure on your carpal tunnel nerve. To help you avoid doing this when you sleep we may recommend that you sleep with wrist braces on. After a few nights of wearing these braces, you should notice some relief from your symptoms.

Surgery

If all else fails and your carpal tunnel syndrome is significantly bad, then we may recommend that you undergo surgery. During surgery, we will cut the transverse carpal ligament which relieves pressure and helps you get rid of symptoms.

The last thing that we want is for you to experience constant pressure, pain, aching, numbness, and tingling in your hands and fingers. If you think you have carpal tunnel syndrome and you want to learn more about treatment, contact us at our Merrillville office today and call us at (219) 795-3360.