Occupational Therapy for Thumb Tendinitis

Thumb tendinitis is a condition that happens when swelling or irritation of the tendons found along the thumb side of the wrist occurs. This causes pain and tenderness along the thumb.

An occupational therapist can design a specific program, which may include exercise, education and splint use, to relieve symptoms and possibly the cause of the problem.

Occupational Therapist

• Occupational therapists provides patients with the tools to return to normal after an injury that limits the normal use of muscles and joints. Occupational therapists do this by presenting exercises, teaching smarter ways to do things that cause less pain and making splints for use by a patient.

Causes

• The root cause of thumb tendinitis is irritation of the tendons located at the base of the thumb. Irritation causes the lining around the tendon to swell. This changes the shape of the lining. Because the shape of the lining is irritated and enlarged, it causes difficulty in tendon movement. Different activities can bring this about. If you hold something with your hands in an awkward position, you may develop thumb tendinitis. Picking up weighted objects with only a few fingers can lead to thumb tendinitis.

Symptoms

• The major symptom of thumb tendinitis is the pain it causes on the thumb side of the wrist. The pain may be sudden, or it can develop gradually. Its symptoms sometimes mimic carpal tunnel syndrome. Pain often increases during hand and thumb use, especially when you are twisting or grasping something.
  Because of this pain and swelling, you may find it difficult to move your thumb and wrist. Nerve irritation causes another symptom of thumb tendinitis, which is numbness in the back of the thumb and index finger.

Therapy

• The goal of treating thumb tendinitis is to relieve the pain caused by irritation and swelling. Therapy specific for thumb tendinitis focuses on exercises that are designed to strengthen and stretch the affected muscle-tendon unit, thus reducing irritation and pain. The occupational therapist will observe your daily activities and recommend stopping the activities that she sees might be causing swelling and pain. Sometimes the symptoms disappear after you stop a specific activity.

  Also the occupational therapist might design a customized thumb splint that holds your bones in place, allowing your ligaments to tighten. Some splints also support the wrist as well as the thumb.

Tips

• The occupational therapist may give you tips on how to protect your thumbs from pain. A few include: Do not use your thumb to hammer things in place. Use a key holder to make turning a key easier. Get a large handled brush to wash your dishes instead of a washcloth. Write with a thick pen. Invest in a mounted, under-the-counter jar opener because less strength is needed to open jars this way.