If you spend a lot of time working at a computer, chances are you may have experienced a tingling or numbness sensation in your wrists and fingers at some point. Numbness is a loss of feeling or sensitivity in a part of your body. If you’ve noticed numbness in your fingers, there are a lot of possible causes. One common cause is carpal tunnel syndrome, a repetitive stress injury.
Injured or pinched nerves can lead to numb fingers. If you spend a lot of time working on a computer or doing other activities that strain your wrists, you can irritate or cause swelling in the carpal tunnel. Many of the nerves that control your fingers and hands pass through the carpal tunnel. Symptoms include pain and numbness in the index, middle fingers, and thumb, tingling in the hand(s), weakness, and pain shooting up the arm. If left unaddressed, carpal tunnel can cause you to lose grip strength and can even result in wasting away of muscles in the base of your thumb.
People who are most at risk for carpal tunnel are those in jobs that involve repetitive wrist movement, such as manufacturing, assembly line work, construction work, and keyboarding occupations. There are steps you can take to mitigate the risks. Relieve the pressure on your wrists by taking frequent breaks to give your hands and arms a rest. Keep your wrists straight, by using a cushion, when typing or using a computer mouse. If symptoms persist, contact a professional like our spine specialists at Divine Spine Yorba Linda.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is not the only explanation for pain and numbness in the fingers, wrists, and hands. For example, longstanding or uncontrolled diabetes is one of the major causes of peripheral neuropathy, damage to the nerves of extremities that often results in numbness or tingling. Other causes of numbness include, but are not limited to, a blood vessel obstruction, a vitamin B12 deficiency, and hand trauma from injuries.
A proper diagnosis from a spine specialist will help identify the cause of pain or numbness in your fingers. At Divine Spine Yorba Linda, we want to help you get to the bottom of what’s causing your hand and wrist pain. We don’t just treat symptoms; we strive to find the root cause of your pain through a comprehensive exam process. We then use an Electronic Vertebral Alignment (EVA) system to treat pain. Our EVA treatment is a non-invasive procedure consisting of a precise directed movement to help relieve pain and discomfort and restore range of motion in the spine and appendages.
A feeling of numbness or tingling in the hands can be harmless and go away on its own. But if it comes back, or persists, it’s something you should talk about with a professional. Dr. Sawhney has a Chiropractic Doctorate and a Masters of Science in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Along with his staff of spine care specialists at Divine Spine, Dr. Sawhney will work to find the cause of your pain and address the underlying issues causing it. Treating the cause of your pain early with EVA and lifestyle changes can lead to significant long-term improvement, and even eliminate symptoms.
Divine Spine serves the communities of Orange County – Yorba Linda, Brea, Fullerton, Anaheim Hills, Placentia, Orange, Tustin, Irvine, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach – and, Chino Hills, Corona, Ontario, and the Inland Empire. Schedule an appointment with Divine Spine Yorba Linda here now.
