If you have been experiencing pain, tingling, or numbness in your arm or hand, this may be due to carpal tunnel. Carpal tunnel can make everyday tasks, such as picking up a glass of water, buttoning your clothes, or grabbing your purse, to become difficult and painful. Thankfully, chiropractic care is an effective solution to alleviate pain brought on by carpal tunnel syndrome.
Alternative Solution for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the tissues in the wrist compress the median nerve in the hand. This nerve starts in the cervical spine, which is a group of spinal bones that form your neck, and runs all the way down the arm and into your wrist. Chiropractic care works as an alternative treatment method for carpal tunnel because it takes the whole body into consideration, pinpointing areas of tension, compression, or weakness to determine the underlying cause of your carpal tunnel syndrome.
While many doctors will recommend taking painkillers for temporary relief, medications will only mask your pain and will not get to the underlying cause. In fact, because the true cause of the pain is left unaddressed, it can worsen over time and become a chronic and irreversible condition. Chiropractic care can help you determine what problems in other areas of the body are causing the carpal tunnel pain, and relieve those areas of tension and pressure through gentle adjustments and manual manipulations.
Because the median nerve is connected to other vital areas of the body, such as the neck, it is extremely important to get your carpal tunnel syndrome checked out by a chiropractor before it gets worse. If the symptoms become worse over time and go untreated, it can lead to permanent damage and chronic symptoms.
If your carpal tunnel gets severe enough, your doctor may recommend surgery as a last resort. While surgery will alleviate some of the pressure to the median nerve by creating space in the carpal tunnel, it also comes with a number of risks and and potential complications, including:
- Bleeding
- Injury to the nearby blood vessels
- Infection
- Injury to the median nerve
- Injury to the scar tissue
This is why making an appointment with a chiropractor early and getting a diagnosis and proper treatment is so important to stop the progression of your carpal tunnel symptoms before they become debilitating.
What Will the First Chiropractic Appointment Look Like?
When you make your first appointment with a chiropractor to get your carpal tunnel syndrome checked out, you can generally expect:
1. The chiropractor will ask you questions about your pain, your health and family history, and about your daily habits and routine.
2. They will perform a comprehensive, non-invasive analysis on your body in order to determine a proper diagnosis.
3. From there, the chiropractor will perform gentle adjustment techniques and hands-on manipulations to realign the body and relieve points of tension or pain.
4. The chiropractor will then work with you to develop a treatment plan for your particular needs. This could involve at-home exercises and stretches to help the area or strengthen other surrounding areas that are compensating, as well as coming into the office on scheduled days to receive regular adjustments and manual manipulations, and to report progress.
You do not have to live with debilitating carpal tunnel syndrome pain any longer. Call us today to schedule a chiropractic appointment and learn about how our chiropractors can help get you out of pain.
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