Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Treatment
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is over diagnosed and over treated surgically in most cases. True carpal tunnel syndrome is diagnosed when the median nerve is being pinched in the carpal tunnel. Symptoms such as numbness and tingling in the thumb and hand, severe burning pain in the thumb and hand, and eventually thumb weakness may occur when the median nerve is pinched. The carpal tunnel is meant to be a passageway for many structures such as nerves and nine tendons. Since the tunnel is already a narrow structure it does not take much to squish these structures. Often times the tunnel is narrowed if the bones in the wrist slip out of alignment. The chiropractor will examine your spine and your wrist to check for any signs of narrowing. If the bones in the wrist slip out of alignment and put pressure on the median nerve, carpal tunnel syndrome is diagnosed. Most of the time surgery is unnecessary, because chiropractic is the best natural treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. Chiropractic adjustments are one of the many treatments chiropractors use to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. An adjustment will put the bones in the wrist back in place, and take the pressure off of the nerve alleviating pain, numbness, and tingling. Graston is a soft tissue technique our Blaine, MN chiropractors use to help treat patients suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. Graston is an adhesion breaking technique that is designed to break up scar tissue that could be putting pressure on the carpal tunnel. Learn more about graston technique by clicking on this link.
Our Blaine, MN chiropractors look at the whole kinetic chain because often times the hand pain and tingling is not coming from the carpal tunnel. Your chiropractor will examine your whole arm and even your neck when you have complaints of hand pain, numbness, or tingling. Nerves come off of the spinal cord in the neck and send signals down to your arms and hands. If the nerve gets pinched anywhere along the line from the spinal cord to the tip of your finger, pain, numbness, and tingling may occur. The nerve often times gets pinched in the pronator teres muscle located on the inside of your elbow. Your Club West Chiropractor will do a series of neurological and orthopedic tests to determine if your symptoms are being caused by pronator teres syndrome or carpal tunnel syndrome. From there the treatments are very different. There are soft tissue protocols used to treat each syndrome. Other therapies are also used along with chiropractic adjustments to decrease pain and inflammation such as ultrasound, electrical muscle stimulation, graston, and kinesiotape.