Which Hand Therapy Product Is Right for Me?

Your hands do so many things, from holding your morning cup of coffee to nursing your book before going to sleep. If you hurt or injure your hands, you would be surprised how many things you take for granted, you can’t do. Hand therapy products are here to help rehabilitate and heal your wrists, hands and fingers, post-surgery or while you’re consulting a physiotherapist.

However, not all hand therapy products work for everything. Knowing what type of injury you have and knowing the correct tool or apparatus works best for you, can reduce rehabilitation time and get you back to holding your spoon while stirring your morning brew in no time.

Access Health has a vast array of exercise therapy equipment. While we will be giving you advice in this article, we strongly suggest you get help and advice from a medical professional before purchasing a therapy product. Education on how to use it correctly for you is vital to get the most out of this product and to be rehabilitated quickly and correctly.

Common Hand Injuries

It may sound silly to say, but we use our hands a lot. At work we use them to type, grab and hold a mouse, and there is a lot of holding and thumbwork involved in scrolling on our smart phones. This is repetitive use and motion, which can give you some very common hand injuries.

There are some common, everyday injuries that our hands suffer for which Access Health has therapy products to help you with. Here are some of those common injuries, perhaps they’ve happened to you?

• Tendon Injuries. Tears or lacerations of the tendons. Fingers are delicate parts of our bodies, and it doesn’t take much to injure them. Sudden injuries like jamming your finger in a door, or long-term injuries such as repetitive strains can all injure your tendons.
• Ligament Injuries. Falling down and bracing yourself with your hands is a common way to sprain your hand and wrist. Sudden hyper-extension of your fingers also injure the ligaments. Common finger ligament injuries occur in sports when trying to catch a ball or getting a finger caught in an opponent’s jersey.
• Dislocation. When the joints of a finger are forcefully pulled apart, such as being caught in a jersey as the opponent suddenly changes direction, can pop a joint, often stretching or injuring a ligament. You often see athletes popping the finger back into the joint, but the ligament is already injured and weakened.
• Nerve Compression. This is commonly referred to as carpal tunnel syndrome. This is the increased pressure on the median nerve in the wrist stemming from repetitive motions, prolonged wrist flexion such as long stints typing at a keyboard, or continual use of vibrating tools. Your thumb and first two fingers are impacted by this condition, with electric shock kind of pain and a weakness in your gripping strength.

Why Would you Use a Hand Therapy Product

Before we get into the specifics of which product to use for which injury, there are different purposes for using hand therapy devices.

Pain management. There are products to help with pain management while you recover from injuries, or if you have arthritic problems. Jar openers and compression gloves in particular, can help with pain and fatigue in your hands and fingers.

Strengthening. To rebuild strength into your hand and wrist, grip strengtheners, therapy putty and hand exercise balls can help. Subtle, repetitive exercises, rather than trying to be as strong as possible as soon as possible, is the way to use these products.

Flexibility and movement. Sometimes you need to get flexibility back into your fingers, fine motor skills after serious injuries such as a break. We have a Cando Graded pinch finger exercise board to help with coordination and pinch strength and the Perdue Pegboard which helps with fine motor skills and finger coordination.

Injury Protection. If you’ve suffered a break, splints and other custom protective gear can help stabilise a finger or hand while the healing process takes place.

Scar Management. Silicon sheets or gel can help manage scars, help the healing process and keep your hands flexible and moving.

What Hand Therapy Products Work for you

Looking at the common injuries above, what hand therapy product would be right for you? Again, we recommend consulting with a doctor or a qualified physiotherapist so you get the right equipment for you.

Tendon Injuries. For these sorts of injuries you may need some immobilisation splints for the initial recovery period. Once you’re ready you would switch to strengthening therapy products, such as digi-flex or flexi putty which you squish and hold to get back strength into your weakened fingers or hand.

Ligament Injuries. Initially splints would be used to stabilise and let the fingers begin to heal. From splints you could use some bracing tape to help stabilise but get some motion into your therapy. Recovery exercises from here would include squeezing and working with therapy putty, squeezing at comfortable strengths and not overdoing it.

Dislocation. For bad dislocations, finger splints keep the injury rigid and not moving during recovery. For minor dislocations you could use bracing tape to keep them stable while allowing movement. Rehabilitation would include Rep Putty and resistance grips to build up strength in the injured hand.

Nerve Compression. Products that focus on carpal tunnel include immobilisation devices, pain relief and what we call nerve gliding. Wrist splints to support your wrist and to stop it moving are a good idea. Especially good to wear while you sleep where sometimes you can roll onto your wrist at strange angles, which can exacerbate your problem. To help strengthen your wrist and help with nerve gliding, squeeze devices are good, such as Rep Putty or a stress relief ball with hand exercises..

For general hand therapy, to strengthen your hands and wrists, hand weight balls are a good idea. Not only do you have to grip them with your fingers, the weight helps strengthen both your wrists and fingers.

Hand and finger injuries are extremely frustrating. We think we know how much we use our hands in our everyday life, but once you injure just one of them, even your off hand, you soon discover all the things you take for granted. Opening doors, scrolling on your phone, holding a knife and fork.

If the worse comes to be, and you are injured, follow the advice from your health practitioner when it comes to recovery and rehabilitation. Don’t try to rush things and don’t stop your exercises even if you don’t feel as much pain anymore.

Access Health is your first stop when it comes to exercise therapy equipment. Hand dynamometers, hand bracers, hand weights, splints and more, all you need to get you healed and back into high-fiving your friends once again.

Contact our team to talk about what ails you and how we can help you.

Disclaimer: Access Health is not qualified to agree or deny whether this content is correct. For accurate information, consult your medical professional or provider.