Thumb Pain Treatment

Thumb pain is an intense pain that starts at the base of the thumb and may go down to the wrist and sometimes affect your forearm as well. When you are suffering from thumb pain, it is likely that the grip of your hand will get affected. You may find it difficult to perform simple activities, like, turning the key of a lock or opening a jar. Even twisting of the wrist can give you pain and discomfort. Thumb pain treatment involves reduction in pain, bringing about improvement in the movement of the thumb joint and providing stability to the joint. Read more on thumb joint pain.

Causes of Thumb Pain

Thumb pain mainly occurs when the tendon that runs from thumb to wrist is weakened. Injury is one of the highly probable thumb pain causes. The thumb can get injured due to some accident or because of overuse. Thumb pain could be a warning signal for more serious health conditions, like, arthritis. Usually, this could be the cause for the thumb pain swelling in those who are above the age of 40. With the increase in age, the ligaments and tendons become thin and weak and get loosened. This leads to deterioration of the cartilage present at the bone joint. This increases the friction between the adjoining bones and due to this the joint gets damaged and the thumb become unstable and painful. More on joint pain.

The main symptom of thumb pain is of course the pain in the thumb area whose intensity may get increased slowly or all of a sudden. Usually, the pain aggravates due to use of thumb and hand. The pain can often be accompanied by other symptoms, like, swelling, stiffness, weakness in the thumb, etc. Due to thumb pain and swelling, movements of thumb and wrist are restricted. Due to thumb pain, nerve irritation may also be observed in some people which further causes numbness at the back of thumb and index finger. Read more on thumb twitching.

Treatment for Thumb Pain

Thumb pain treatment mainly depends on thumb pain causes. They are various forms of treatment, like, use of medicines, use of splints, physical therapy, surgery, etc.

Rest: If the cause of the pain is minor, then the thumb pain is not something serious and thumb pain relief can be obtained by keeping the thumb in a resting position. In other words, if you stop using the affected thumb for the time being, then it will recover from the pain on its own. This can be done using a splint. Broken thumb treatment, smashed thumb treatment, dislocated thumb treatment involves wearing of splint. It gives support to the joint, positions the joint properly and thus reduces the pain. Depending on the thumb pain swelling, the doctors decide whether you should use the splint throughout the day or only during the night.

Medicines: Anti inflammatory medicines are helpful in pain management. However, their effect is temporary and cannot solve the problem. You have to treat the underlying cause to get rid of thumb pain and weakness. Pain killers, when taken for a long period of time cause several side effects, like, gastric ulcers, damage to kidneys and liver, etc. and hence should be avoided. Similarly, corticosteroid injections can be used for treating wrist thumb pain. Thumb pain swelling can be reduced by injections but the latter cannot cure it.

Physical Therapy: This is most effective for almost any kind of thumb discomfort treatment. Be it thumb pain stiffness, thumb pain and swelling, thumb pain and weakness, all the related problems can be resolved with the help of physical therapy. Physical therapy relieves the thumb pain stiffness and restores functioning of sensitive tendons. It can also help in recovery of thumb pain surgery.

Surgery: When all other non surgical methods fail, only then doctors suggest surgery. Moreover, if your thumb is badly impaired by thumb pain and swelling or thumb pain and weakness, then again surgery is done. There are different types of surgeries done to treat thumb pain which depends on the condition of your thumb. Usually, the surgeries involve either repairing of the joint or fusing of the bones to add stability to the thumb or replacement of the joint. Hospitalization of the patient is not usually required for such surgeries. Post-surgery, the thumb has to be kept in a splint or cast for six weeks. Then, physical therapy is needed to bring back the strength of the thumb. Normally, it takes six months for the patient to fully recover from the surgery.

Most of the times, thumb pain treatment is done using more than one of these forms of treatments. If you find that the thumb pain and discomfort is for some minor injury of the thumb you can treat it at home. Use of cold bandages or application of ice cubes is a good thumb injury treatment.