Hand Therapy: What Is Right for Me?
What is hand therapy?
Hand therapy is a type of rehabilitation therapy performed by occupational therapists or physiotherapists to heal bone-related diseases and conditions which affect the upper portion of the body such as the hand, wrist, forearm, shoulder, and elbow. The upper body part intensifies the range of motion and does lots of activities to enhance our dexterity level as well as body strength. Our body parts are made of bones, cartilage, nerves, ligaments, veins, and layers of connective tissues which get easily damaged by certain diseases and conditions like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, trauma, and injuries. Any kind of injury inhibits the range of motions of your hands, wrists, and fingers.
If your upper body parts ranging from shoulder to finger joints get fractured, the physiotherapist or hand therapist fills the space between post-treatment rehabilitation and orthopaedic assistance. This treatment helps a patient to return to their normal life. A hand therapist recommends proper rehabilitation after orthopaedic treatment. They use advanced medical technology, which includes the knowledge of anatomy, emotional & chemical energy, and Kinesiology (Examination of muscle to identify the imbalance between body structure). A professional well-trained hand therapist provides pain relief treatment without performing surgery. They will guide you to manage pain and how to get rid of it. They also assist you to cope with tissue sensitivity which comes from nerve issues.
A hand therapist helps you to build splints to block and cure muscle stiffness. Thus, you can perform day to day activities in a better way. They will suggest that some exercise can be done at home to increase hand movement, range of motions, develop strength and eventually live a painless quality life.
How is the hand therapy treatment performed?
An experienced and qualified hand therapist will diagnose your hand deformity, swelling, bone sensitivity, and fluctuation in colours to determine the recovery options, limitation and severity of the trauma and injury. Here the main objective is to re-establish your arm function, reduce the severity of the internal infection, and preclude upper limb dysfunctionality through detailed rehabilitation. A hand therapist usually provides non-operative, conservative, and preventive therapy. They connect with orthopaedic surgeons to offer optimum medical support to their patients for better recovery.
A hand therapist should have all required certifications and credentials in Medical physiology and Physiotherapy. He should have a minimum of 5 years of experience and 4000 hours of clinical experience on hand injury procurement. They should be updated about modern tools and procedures used in the medical field, usually in Physiotherapy. Certified hand therapists work with cutting edge medical technology to provide their patients with a top-notch treatment complemented with fast rehabilitation. This rehabilitation treatment is effective for soft-tissue mobilization, joint mobilization, wound care, oedema control, biofeedback functionality, scar management, splint fabrication, manual therapy, electric stimulation, short-wave diathermy, pain control, hot and cold therapy treatment.
Hand therapy treatment is a time-consuming process that gradually relieves you from pain, decreases muscle fragility and nerve sensitivity, and enhances forearm flexibility and holding ability. They will guide you through a series of hand movements that help you make splints to block or rectify stiffness and make you eligible to come back to normal life.
Are you a suitable person for hand therapy?
Hand treatment is appropriate for an enormous classification of patients experiencing various bone-related inconveniences like breaks, excruciating injury mishap, tendinitis, cuts (sores), muscle tear, injury, excessive sensitivity, wound complex regional pain syndrome ( CRPS), joint inflammation or arthritis, stroke, removal at the finger.
Who isn’t qualified for the treatment?
Expecting the injury or injury is unequivocal to some other body parts like legs, back or mid-locale, then, you won’t go through hand treatment and, actually, go through work out based recovery or various designs medicines.
Side effects related to hand therapy
There is no serious side effect associated with hand therapy. But if it is done with the wrong procedure or performed by an inexperienced occupational therapist you may come across a serious injury. In this situation, you need to take the assistance of an orthopedic surgeon. If you have severe pain, you need to consult with your hand therapist first. The wrong hand therapy procedure causes inflammation along with laceration. Thus we would suggest you consult with a leading and experienced hand therapist who has enough reputation in this relevant field. He will ask you to apply an ice pack to the injured area. A wrong hand therapy causes soreness in the finger joint, excruciating wrist pain which gradually demotivates you to continue hand therapy. Thus choose a certified hand therapist who relieves you from pain, not elevating the pain. Hand therapy exercise is very essential at the time of rehabilitation. It nearly costs about $ 140-$250 for primary diagnosis, then $70-$450 per hour depending on the therapist and the clinic, kind of services. If a hand therapist has many years of experience, he may charge more fees.