Braces for Wrist Pain and Injury

When you suffer from wrist pain, it affects more than just your wrist. Your wrist is similar to a control arm for your hand. When it is sore or painful, you use your hand less to keep from inflaming the condition.

In a work environment, especially one where we are working from home, wrist pain can be a problem that will keep workplace performance to a minimum. Accidents and sports often cause injuries, just as degenerative conditions arise with age or follow post-operative conditions after trauma. When we work from home, we may not have all the assets we need to mitigate the pain, like an ergonomic desk or other medical aids, to eliminate the problems we face when trying to accomplish tasks.

When you seek relief from wrist pain and need the help of a medical device to achieve your workplace goals, there is no better place to turn that Care-Med. Our certified credentialed health care experts work in tandem with your physician’s medical diagnosis, and we have the medical device to treat any condition that you are suffering from. At Care-Med, we understand that wrist pain is just that, painful, but when you understand where wrist pain comes from, you can take concrete action to reduce and or eliminate the problems caused by the affliction.

How the wrist moves

The wrist joint is an ellipsoidal (moving in a circle) and a condyloid that allows for back and forth bending. The wrist moves on two planes that allow for flexion, extension, adduction, abduction and circumduction. What that means is that your wrist will have a range of movement in a circle up to 360 degrees while allowing bending of the wrist at a 90-degree angle to the arm.

What causes wrist pain?

Carpal tunnel syndrome

There are three major nerves in the forearm, and the median nerve is one of them. When the median nerve becomes compressed or pinched for any reason, carpal tunnel syndrome occurs. The median nerve is found on the inside of the hand and will produce many different sensations in your hand, telling that something isn’t right with your hand. Your fingers – thumb, index, middle and ring finger – will feel the brunt of the affliction. An electrical impulse is sent to the nerve via the muscle leading to your thumb. The cause of median nerve compression comes from extreme pressure on your wrist and median nerve, causing swelling. Many activities will trigger carpal tunnel syndrome in individuals.

Repetitive tasks like typing, drawing or sewing will help spur the onset of the syndrome. Overweight/obese, pregnancy or menopause will cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Medical conditions that span diabetes, arthritis, or thyroid problems contribute to the onslaught of carpal tunnel syndrome.

A wrist injury

When you sustain fractures and broken bones in the wrist through an accident or while participating in various activities, you will experience acute pain. Injuries to the wrist also often lead to sprains and tendonitis. When you have swelling in the wrist area or a deformed joint, these are symptoms of a wrist injury.

Trauma is a significant factor in wrist injuries, and the results are instant – pain and swelling lead to deduction of an injury. Other injuries can be time-delayed, resulting from the degradation of ligaments, tendons, and muscles in the arm and wrist area.

Gout

When you experience gout, you have a buildup of uric acid. Your body creates the acid as a chemical to help break down the foods we eat, and in most cases, it expels it through the urinary tract. The body can overproduce uric acid, and it stays in our bodies and settles in our joints.

Pain and swelling are the results of excess uric acid. The causes are many but not limited to: over-imbibing in alcohol, overeating, medications and diuretics, high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease.

Arthritis

This is the cause of inflammation of the joints, making the afflicted areas swell and become stiff. Arthritis comes in many forms that come from ageing, wear and tear, and overworking your hands and wrists.

Rheumatoid arthritis

• It takes the form of an autoimmune disease that attacks both wrists. Your immune system is tricked into attacking the joints’ lining in wrists, creating pain and discomfort. Swelling and bone decomposition are the results as the condition goes untreated.

Osteoarthritis

• As we age, we will experience a condition called osteoarthritis. This disease progressively degenerates due to the wear and erosion of cartilage. The cartilage is the tissue that protects the joints, and the tissue will wear away with age and through repeated activities. Movement in the wrist, once the protective tissue is gone, creates friction through bone-on-bone rubbing, which starts the swelling and the pain you feel.

Psoriatic arthritis

• If you have a skin disorder known as psoriasis, expect arthritis to be a condition you face down the road.

Wrist pain symptoms

When you feel wrist pain, some signs should indicate that trouble is ahead if you aren’t experiencing imminent pain.

1. Your fingers are swelling for no reason
2. You can’t make a fist or grab an object
3. Your hands feel numb or tingle
4. At night, you feel pain, your hands tingle or become numb
5. Sudden, intense pain localized in your hand
6. Your wrist becomes red, and you have swelling

These symptoms are a sign of septic arthritis, and it is infectious. A severe illness that has claimed the lives of those who don’t act on the symptoms. When you experience any of the problems outlined in this article, contact your physician immediately for help.

At Care-Med, we know what you need.

For more than a decade and a half, we at Care-Med have been at the forefront of supplying medical devices. These help people deal with pain and help you get back to active, productive lives. We work with your physician’s diagnosis to create the best solutions to help treat your wrist pain with the industry’s best medical devices.

If your extended healthcare plan covers your need for a wrist brace or gauntlet, we accept all major insurance carriers. If you have Veteran’s Affairs benefits, ADP, Circle of Care, ODSP or Ontario Works benefits, we will honour those plans as well.

We would encourage you to visit our website and review our hand and wrist brace inventory to find a compatible brace for your condition.