Did you know that chiropractic care can help with wrist pain and other wrist issues?
There are many causes of wrist pain. Some of them include arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, overuse injuries, and trauma. It can be hard to figure out what exactly the cause of the pain is and how to treat it, partly because it is such a complex joint with a wide variety of symptoms. Let’s dive a little deeper into what the wrist actually looks like.
The wrist is a fascinating and complex joint. It is comprised of eight bones that have to articulate with each other (work together, essentially). These ones are the scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, and hamate.
Rest assured, you do not have to remember these! The bones are connected by ligaments for structure and support.
Part of what is so interesting about the wrist is that it is mostly comprised of just bones and ligaments. There are only a couple of tendons that attach to the wrist itself. Most of the muscles and the tendons that create movements in the wrist actually attach to the hand bones and the forearms. Because the wrist is essentially a big bag of bones and ligaments, the importance of the movement between those joints are really important. The actual individual movements of the wrist joints are poorly understood, even in the science today (1), but we do know that good movement is important for good function.
Our body functions as one living being, so when it comes to determining where one’s complaint is actually originating from, we have to look at more places than one. Wrist complaints could stem from the neck, the shoulder, the ribs, the forearm or elbow, or the actual wrist itself. Part of our job as a chiropractor is to play detective and discern the actual cause of the complaint. Adjustments can be performed to the wrist itself should this be needed.
If you have symptoms such as pain, stiffness, numbness, tingling, or simply discomfort in your wrist, we recommend that you bring this to our attention so that we can do a thorough exam to determine where the complaint is coming from and how we might help you.
Reference:
- Eschweiler, J.; Li, J.; Quack,; Rath, B.; Baroncini, A.; Hildebrand, F.; Migliorini, F. Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Loads of the Wrist Joint. Life 2022, 12, 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020188