An array of ailments, physical causes, and physiological states can lead to the partial or complete loss of functionality in either one or both your hands. Such loss of hand functionality occurs due to underlying factors that affect one or internal components of the human hand, i.e., muscles, joints, bones, tendons, nerves, and connective tissue. Examples of conditions that can have a debilitating effect on your shoulder, upper arm, forearm, wrist, and fingers include: –
Cubital Tunnel Syndrome
This condition results from undue pressure on the ulnar nerve as it passes through the cubital tunnel, located at the elbow joint, on its way to muscles in the forearm and fingers. This excess pressure on the ulnar nerve is manifest as a dull pain on the inside of your elbow, often accompanied by tingling/numbness in the forearm and fingers
Tendonitis/Tendinitis
Tendonitis occurs when you inadvertently overexert a muscle causing it to strain and inflame the tendon that attaches it to a bone in your hand. You are at most risk of Tendonitis while engaging in sports or other strenuous activity, whereby the condition can affect the fingers, wrist, upper arm, elbow, or fingers. When you have this condition you experience a deep intense pain that worsens on movement, with the area around the affected tendon later swelling and becoming hypersensitive.
Hand Fractures
Hand fractures typically occur when you subject the bones in your hand to a brunt force, whereby the impact causes them to crack or break., i.e., due to a fall, collision with a hard object, or abrupt twisting of the arms during sports. Furthermore, even a mild force can cause your bones to fracture if you have Osteoporosis, a condition that weakens the bones. A hand fractures subjects you to initial excruciating pain often accompanied by swelling and tenderness around the fracture point.
Dupuytren’s Contracture
This condition occurs when the connective tissue in your fingers begins to shorten and thicken, forming knots that prevent you from fully extending the fingers. While Dupuytren’s Contracture occurs gradually and causes you little pain, this condition makes everyday tasks unnecessarily difficult.
De Quervain Tenosynovitis
As with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, De Quervain Tenosynovitis occurs due to chronic overuse of the wrist. This excessive use causes two tendons at the base of your thumb to swell, which inflames the sheath housing them.
When this happens, you experience a dull throbbing pain that becomes suddenly intense whenever you use your wrist, thumb, and hand.Accompanying symptoms include numbness in your thumb and index finger and a grating sensation whenever you move your thumb.
Congenital Hand Deformities
Common congenital hand conditions include: –
- Polydactyly : you have more than five fingers
- Syndactyly : two or more of your fingers are fused
- Symbrachydactyly : both or one or your hands is underdeveloped
- Clubhand : your hand turns inwards towards the body
While congenital hand deformities are rarely painful, having such a condition can make it difficult for you to carry out everyday tasks.
Arthritis-Induced Hand Conditions
Arthritis wears out the protective lining within various joints in your hand, with finger and wrist joints being most affected. Having this autoimmune condition means you experience pain whenever you carry out even the simplest everyday tasks.
Conditions
Braces and supports help in a variety of situations, such as recovering from an injury or just leading an active lifestyle and needing to protect your joints. Here are just a few examples of when braces and straps can help:
Injuries
Post-operative rehab
Joint conditions like Arthritis
Conditions related to Athletic Injuries
Jobs involving heavy lifting or repetitive motions
Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS)
Patellar Tendonitis (Jumper’s Knee) and conditions related to Runner’s Knee
Strength Building Therapy
Strength building therapy employs an array of weight-based exercises designed to strengthen muscles in weakened hands, dramatically increasing the functionality of your hands.
Pain Management Therapy
Pain management therapy employs orthotic braces, TENS electrotherapy to avail effective relief from intermittent and chronic pain originating from joints, muscles, nerves, and tendons in your hands.
Dexterity Enhancement Therapy
Dexterity enhancement therapy combines soft tissue, strength-building, and joint exercises to increase the functionality of your hands. You should note our HTCC certified physiotherapists use a combination of these purpose-specific therapies to offer comprehensive hand therapy for a variety of conditions.
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What Conditions Can Hand Therapy Help with?
The hand physiotherapy you receive at our Activa Clinics’ Scarborough facility depends on the condition affecting the muscles, joints, nerves, tendons, and connective tissues in your hands.Hand therapy offered at our Activa Clinics Scarborough facility for common hand debilitating conditions is as follows.
- Cubital Tunnel Syndrome
Hand physiotherapy for this condition involves alleviating pressure on the ulnar nerve as it passes through the cubital tunnel. Consequently, a HTCC-certified physiotherapist uses a variety of thermoplastic orthotic braces to realign bones, tendons, and muscles that make up your elbow joint. As the therapy progresses, your physiotherapist progressively introduces joint mobility and soft tissue exercises to prevent a recurrence of the condition.
- Tendonitis/Tendinitis
To remedy your Tendonitis, an Activa Clinics physiotherapist initially immobilizes the muscles and joints associated with the inflamed tendon using orthotic braces.Furthermore, you undergo TENS electrotherapy to avail effective pain relief when your Tendonitis exhibits intense pain, particularly in the initial stages.
As your Tendonitis improves, you undergo strength building, soft tissue, and joint mobility therapy to increase the usability of the affected tendon(s).
- Dupuytre’s Contracture
Dupuytren’s Contracture hand therapy at our Scarborough clinic is post-surgical, i.e., after a surgery to remove tissue knots and straighten out your fingers.
Your hand physiotherapy will involve immobilizing affected fingers in their straightened position using orthotic braces and soft tissue exercises to restore finger use.
- De Quervain’s Synovitis
Your initial hand therapy at our Scarborough facility features a certified physiotherapist immobilizing the affected hand using an orthotic brace.Doing so helps alleviate pain and avail time for healing of the inflamed tendons. Later sessions involve strength-building and soft tissue therapy to restore functionality in the affected thumb and index finger.
- Hand fractures
An Activa Clinics physiotherapist immobilizes the fractured part of your hand using specially designed 3D-printed orthotic braces for hand fractures. These 3D braces are optimized for comfort via the use of a durable and soft thermoplastic material that is also porous hence breathable. You may require TENS electrotherapy if your hand fracture exhibits the sharp pain often associated with early stages of recovery. Once your fracture heals, your HTCC physiotherapist then guides you through strength-building and joint motion exercises to restore functionality.
- Congenital Hand Conditions
As with Dupuytren’s Contracture, hand therapy for a congenital hand condition is primarily post-surgical, i.e., after an operation to correct a congenital fault with muscles, tendons, nerves, and joints. At our Activa Scarborough clinic, you undergo strength building, soft tissue, dexterity enhancement, and pain management physiotherapy, designed to add functionality to the affected part of your hand.
- Arthritis-related hand Conditions
Our hand physiotherapy offers you an effective way of managing your arthritis-induced hand condition. The hand therapy you receive at our Scarborough Activa Clinics facility incorporates joint mobility, strength-building, and pain management physiotherapy.
You should note that the above list of conditions is not exhaustive, i.e., Activa Clinics offers hand physiotherapy for several other hand conditions not mentioned.
Choosing the Right Brace
With the wide variety of braces available, it can be hard to find the right one for you, as there are knee sleeves, knee straps, knee braces and back braces for lower back pain to choose from, but our experienced medical professionals can help.
How Long Could Hand Therapy Take to See Results?
First and foremost, the duration of time before you start seeing results from your Activa hand therapy depends on the nature and severity of your condition. For instance, you may notice increased mobility in your wrist after a single hand therapy session if a short-term condition, such as Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, is the cause of your wrist joint problem.
On the other hand, it may require four to five hand therapy sessions before you observe similar results if your wrist joint mobility issue is due to a life-long condition like Arthritis.
Second, it is advisable to prioritize the opinion of your Activa hand therapist when it comes to what results you should expect at successive stages of your customized hand therapy program at Activa’s Scarborough clinic.
Activa Clinics is the ideal place to get your hand therapy. Book An Appointment Now!
Hand Therapy Services in Scarborough
Hand Therapy at our Activa Clinics Scarborough center offers you three notable benefits: –
- Access to effective hand physiotherapy for a wide range of hand problems due to ailments, accidents, and congenital causes.
- Hand therapy availed by competent and HTCC certified experienced physiotherapists.
- Comprehensive Hand physiotherapy that combines multiple complementary approaches, i.ePain Management Therapy, Joint Motion Therapy, Dexterity Enhancement Therapy, Strength Building Therapy, and Soft Tissue Injury.
Call our Brampton clinic 1-800 number to book a hand therapy session offered by our team of expert and experienced physiotherapists. You also have the option of filling out the online query form on the Activa Clinics website to find out what hand physiotherapy is suitable for your condition. Alternatively, simply visit our Scarborough facility and witness our impeccable range of tried-and-tested hand physiotherapy services, first hand.