5 Ways to Reduce Carpal Tunnel Pain

Your carpal tunnel is a space in between your wrist bones that provides a way for your tendons, ligaments, and nerves to pass through your bones to reach your hand. 

The main nerve that runs through your carpal tunnel is called the median nerve. This vital nerve provides feeling to your hand and most of your fingers, and also allows you to move your forearm. If your carpal tunnel becomes inflamed, swollen, or damaged, it compresses your median nerve, causing a condition known as carpal tunnel syndrome. 

Carpal tunnel syndrome can cause all sorts of nerve disorder symptoms, such as pain, tingling, and numbness, since your compressed median nerve can’t send out proper signals.

If you catch carpal tunnel syndrome early, you can reverse it easily. However, if it goes untreated for long enough, you could suffer from permanent nerve damage. 

So, our team, led by Don Enty, MD, at Genesis Pain and Regenerative Medicine in Colleyville, Texas, wants to provide some helpful strategies you can use to manage carpal tunnel syndrome and discuss how we can help with carpal tunnel syndrome treatment in this month’s blog. 

Common causes of carpal tunnel syndrome

Part of effective carpal tunnel syndrome treatment is understanding what’s causing it in the first place. These are some of the more common causes of wrist swelling and nerve compression:

• Diabetes
• Thyroid or pituitary gland disorders
• Rheumatoid arthritis 
• High blood pressure 
• Fluid retention from pregnancy or menopause 
• Wrist sprains or fractures

Repetitive use or overextension of your wrists can also cause median nerve irritation and lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. You can especially be at risk if you have a job that requires a lot of typing, play the piano regularly, or use a lot of vibrating power tools.

Managing pain and other carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms

When you notice symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, such as pain and tingling in your hands and fingers, wrist numbness, hand weakness, and wrist pain that makes it hard to sleep, seek prompt care from our Genesis Pain and Regenerative Medicine team. 

Our team begins by helping to determine the cause of your carpal tunnel syndrome, reviewing your symptoms, and discussing which activities exacerbate your symptoms. We then discuss your treatment options. Carpal tunnel syndrome often responds well to conservative methods such as:

1. Wearing a splint

Putting your wrist into overextended positions often causes or exacerbates carpal tunnel syndrome. By wearing a splint, you put your wrist in a more neutral position that allows swelling and inflammation to go down so your median nerve can heal. 

2. Doing physical therapy 

Undergoing physical therapy helps strengthen the muscles in your wrist and keeps your wrist flexible, allowing your median nerve to move more freely in the carpal tunnel. 

3. Modifying wrist posture

How you hold your wrists can make your carpal tunnel syndrome better or worse. We can suggest ways to maintain better wrist posture during everyday activities to protect your wrist joint and the health of the median nerve. 

4. Taking anti-inflammatory medications

Taking over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain medications, such as ibuprofen, can help reduce inflammation, pain, and swelling, allowing you to manage your symptoms better. We advise you on the dosage and frequency.

5. Getting corticosteroid injections

Our team offers corticosteroid injections to help manage pain. We inject the steroid into your carpal tunnel to reduce swelling and provide pain relief. 

To get started with carpal tunnel syndrome treatment, schedule an appointment with our team by calling our office or using our online booking feature today.