One in seven Americans suffers from an orthopedic impairment. Fortunately, these impairments can be treated with the help of orthopaedic pain management.
One of these types of orthopaedic practice is hand therapy. But what is hand therapy and how can it improve pain management?
Understanding hand therapy
Hand therapy is an orthopaedic treatment used to evaluate and treat orthopedic conditions located in the arm, elbow, hand, wrist, or forearm. A type of physical therapy, a hand doctor or therapist uses a number of techniques to improve a patient’s hand and arm functions.
What is a hand therapist?
A hand therapist is an occupational therapist. They use kinesiology, physiology, and the study of anatomy to treat conditions in the patient’s arm or hand. Orthopedic conditions caused to the patient’s upper extremity may have been the result of injury, trauma, or disease.
You can feel safe during your occupational rehabilitation that your therapist knows what they’re doing. This is because a certified hand therapist must demonstrate their competency in hand therapy on a rigorous exam while also completing 4,000 hours of treatment in the therapy field. These 4,000 are spent treating patients with a wide variety of conditions and disorders.
How can a hand therapist help my condition?
Hand therapy serves as a physical rehabilitation that can help you move from surgery (if you’ve had surgery for your condition) to recovery as smoothly as possible. Even those who don’t receive surgery on their arm or hand may feel happier and more functional after receiving physical therapy treatment.
Hand therapy can provide preventative care, non-operative interventions, and rehabilitation after surgery. Those who are suffering from chronic conditions such as arthritis may also benefit from hand therapy. This is because, at an orthopaedic center, you can receive the education you need for your joint protection and adaptive equipment.
Hand therapists utilize tools and techniques over a variety of programs to manage swelling and pain in the patient’s hand or arm. They also help improve and education on scar care such as massaging the scarred area to break up the tissue.
If you’re experiencing pain or problems with day to day activities due to a condition in your arm, elbow, forearm, wrist, or hand, hand therapy can help improve your life and everyday functioning. Visit your local physical therapy center for more information on how you can benefit from therapy treatments.