Hand Therapy
Empower Physical Therapy offers hand therapy services to treat injuries or to help you recover from any number of upper extremity complications, and to return you to the highest level of function possible. Therapy may include treating these areas:
- Shoulder
- Arm and elbow
- Forearm, wrist, hand and fingers
- custom splinting / bracing
Hand Therapists
A hand therapist is an occupational therapist or a physical therapist with specialist training in the mechanics, function, and structure of the hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder. These specialists use a variety of tools and therapies to provide relief to patients experiencing pain. This may also include loss of strength, diminished range of motion, and impaired flexibility in the joints and tissues of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. Hand therapy can be instrumental in helping patients to return to work and other daily activities following illness, surgery, or injury, including injury due to repetitive stress injury (RPI).
What a Hand Therapist Treats
Hand therapy is typically used to treat patients who have experienced a variety of disorders or injuries, including fractures, dislocations, strains, cuts and severed fingers or hands, as well as problems stemming from overuse. A hand therapist or doctor of physical therapy can also treat pinched nerves, nerve injuries, nerve pain, and arthritis or pain in the joints. Hand therapy may also be used in the treatment of adhesions from scarring, and recovery from surgery.
Hand Therapy Treatments
At Empower Physical Therapy, our certified physical therapists and doctors of physical therapy offer a complete variety of hand therapy treatments. These include:
- Custom designed exercises performed at appointments and at home to improve flexibility, strength, range of motion, and endurance.
- Custom splinting that reduces stiffness in muscles and joints and promotes increased range of motion.
- Ultrasound therapy that utilizes sound waves to increase bloodflow and reduce inflammation and pain in targeted tissues. Ultrasound in conjunction with manual therapies can greatly increase a patient’s comfort level during and after hand therapy.
- Manual therapies such as the Graston Technique – a type of massage therapy that repairs soft tissue damage while breaking down scar tissue.
- Adaptive devices and techniques that allow for patients to return to home and work activities.
- Nerve therapies that pair manual therapies with other techniques, such as electrical nerve stimulation to reduce pain. Source: https://www.exercise-science-guide.com/careers/sports-physical-therapist/
Specialist Hand Therapy at Empower Physical Therapy
Our certified physical therapists and physical therapy doctors will work closely with your other care providers to coordinate your care and recovery. Our specialists in hand therapy employ a variety of techniques to treat injury, to aid with recovery from surgery, and to reduce the effects of chronic issues and other long-term problems causing pain, weakness, stiffness, and loss of range of motion in your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders.