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- Build your muscle strength back and help improve movement
- Improve overall functionality and mobility of your hand
- Overcome pain
- Effective in reducing pain related to cumulative trauma disorders (CTD)
- Eliminate adhesions and stop the formation of dangerous scarring
- Re-educate sensory and reduce/minimize desensitization
- Excellent option for prosthetic training
Hand Therapy is a non-surgical way of treating injuries and disorders of the hand and upper body by making use of various physiotherapy techniques such as hand exercises, splinting and injury focused treatment.
A Certified Hand therapist (CHT) also treats disorders of the upper limb such as the shoulder, elbow and the wrist that hampers the functionality of the hand. Hand therapy involves everything from treatment to complete recovery enabling the patient to carry on his daily activities and sports.
Hand therapy may also involve occupational therapy as well as the services of a physiotherapy clinic.
A Certified Hand Therapist is a licensed physiotherapist who has shown exceptional skills in the field of physiotherapy and has cleared necessary examination in the assessment and treatment of specific hand diseases, deformities, etc
Journal of Hand Therapy by Josephine Chan PhD, OTR, CHT and Jean Spencer PhD, OTR, FAOTA studied the ‘The usefulness of qualitative knowledge development in hand therapy”. The article includes the importance and the present knowledge of hand therapy and its multiple perspectives.
Hand therapy can be a highly effective form of treatment for anyone with hand disorders or tendon disorders such as trigger finger/thumb, De Quervain’s syndrome, swellings including Ganglion cysts, arthritis such as terminal finger joint arthritis, basal thumb arthritis, nerve disorder like carpal tunnel syndrome and cubital tunnel syndrome.
Hand therapy can also treat various kinds of hand injuries such as tendon injuries like: flexor tendon injury, extensor tendon injury, mallet finger injury, etc., hand joint injuries like: skier’s thumb, finger sprains, finger dislocations, hand fractures and nerve injuries. It also helps in treatment of congenital hand deformities that includes webbed fingers and missing thumb.
1. When should I consider hand therapy? After injury or surgery, it takes quite a long time to restore the flexibility of your hand to pre-injury or surgery levels. Hand therapy will greatly help in establishing your normal functionality of the hand at a faster rate.
2. What should I expect when I visit a hand therapist? At the physiotherapy clinic you choose, you may be asked to produce your medical history, discuss your injury, intensity of pain etc. Your physiotherapist will also make a note of how impactful is the disorder to your daily activities. The therapist and you will review your rehabilitation goals. And finally a personalized therapy program will be designed and implemented for you.
3. How long does hand therapy treatment take? Usually the time taken to conduct hand therapy is about 20 to 40 minutes for each visit. You may have to visit the clinic for several sessions depending upon the serverity of the problem.
4. How is the hand therapist going to assess my problem? Your hand therapist will examine the affected area and then identify the key symptoms that help indentify areas of therapeutic focus. The therapist will then gently stretch and move your joints in order to check its flexibility. He or she will then check for the strength of the muscle and its ability to contract; if pain and weakness is observed, the therapist will make a note of it.
Neurological screening may be done to check how muscles and nerves communicate with each other, touch sensitivity, feeling of pain, temperature, etc. Additional tests may be conducted depending upon the results concluded after performing above tests.
5. Do I need to bring anything along with me? It is advisable for you to carry your doctor’s prescription during your first session with the hand therapist. You may also carry your health insurance card so that you can save on out of pocket expenses where applicable. Check with your health insurance provider for hand therapy; in most cases, it is permitted.
You may visit your family doctor prior to starting therapy as a physicians script is required for coverage of treatment. However, a doctor's script is not required in order begin a hand therapy program.
Top 5 reasons to consider hand therapy
1. Restoration of flexibility: The flexibility of the hand is greatly hampered after an injury or surgery; hand therapy can help in improving the overall functionality and increase the strength of the muscles.
2. Pain management: Hands are one of the most important tools of our body. However, if the hands are injured, the pain can hinder activity even after surgical intervention.
3. Reduction of Cumulative trauma disorders (CTD): Cumulative trauma disorders (CTD): are conditions in which any bodily part is damaged due to frequent overuse. Some of the known CTDs include blackberry thumb, carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis, shin splints, tendonitis, and tennis elbow, trigger finger, etc. Hand therapy helps in decreasing CTDs considerably.
4. Scar removal: Aftereffects of an injury can often be seen by means of the scars. The formation of scars that appear after hand injury can be prevented by hand therapy.
5. Adjustment with prosthetic hands: When the hand is surgically amputated and is replaced by an artificial hand, the patient may not be able to make proper use of it. Hand therapy will help the patient in adjusting to the prosthetic hands through training.
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