Hand Therapy
Find relief and improve your hand movement.
Your hands are vital tools for everyday tasks. So, when you feel hand or wrist pain from injury, surgery, or non-use, the occupational hand therapists at Novant Health can help you regain mobility and use. Your one-on-one therapy will include advanced techniques from a specialist trained and certified in hand therapy.
What is hand therapy?
Occupational hand therapists treat people of all ages, including young children. Hand therapists help you regain hand functions that may have been lost due to pain, injury, surgery, or lack of use. We use a variety of treatments including modalities (heat, cold, ultrasound, TENS), manual therapies like edema and scar management, soft tissue mobilization, and exercise to help you return and/or regain your independence in daily living, sports, and work activities.
Our hand therapists use techniques to correct or help you overcome pain in your hand or wrist. Our facilities and experienced specialists around North Carolina regularly treat generalized hand weakness as well as a variety of conditions.
Hand Therapy Conditions We Treat
Arthritis typically causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and deformity in your hand.
With tendonitis, stiffness in your wrist often impacts your range of motion.
A bone break can minimize range of motion and strength or cause stiffness in your fingers or hand.
Following surgery, tendons can tighten around nearby tissue, limiting your hand movement.
Loss of strength and range of motion can occur following surgery.
Damage to muscle, tissue, tendons, and joints can limit your functionality and mobility.
Nerve compression injuries cause numbness, pain, tingling, or weakness in your wrist.
Fingers that get stuck in a bent position and snap back in place rather than uncurling.
Thickening of tissue in your palm can cause one or more fingers to curl inward.
Find relief with hand therapy treatment
Your hand therapist will work one-on-one with you to assess your condition and determine the best plan of treatment. We take the time to understand your goals and design a plan to help you achieve them. Depending on your condition your treatment may include one or more of the following:
- Splinting/casting
- Wound care
- Therapeutic ultrasound
- Electrical stimulation
- Kenesio-taping
- Cupping
- Deep dry needling
- Soft tissue and scar mobilization
- Range of motion/stretching
- Strengthening
- Return to sport and return to work guidance
- Home safety education
- ADL equipment (Aids for Daily Living)
Who provides hand therapy?
A hand therapist is an occupational therapist trained to specifically treat hand conditions. Many of the hand therapists at Novant Health are certified by the American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT). Our highly skilled and experienced hand therapists will evaluate and treat you in one-on-one sessions to ensure you understand what is being done and have confidence as we work with you.