Do you suffer from a finger that keeps hurting? You might be wondering what could be causing this prolonged pain and discomfort. There is often no single cause for finger pain, and the answer usually depends on your lifestyle, physical activity, age, and medical history. In this article, we’ll look at the most common causes of finger pain and give you tips to help relieve your pain!
Here are some common causes that trigger finger pain.
Acute injuries:
This type of injury happens suddenly rather than slowly. Examples include sprains and strains, broken bones, dislocations, lacerations or cuts, puncture wounds and insect bites. Such injuries can be caused by a variety of activities, ranging from sports injuries to accidents with hand tools or machinery. The symptom of finger pain associated with these injuries is often quite severe, as is swelling and bruising in the area around the site of injury.
Treatment for acute injuries includes applying ice to reduce swelling and taking anti-inflammatory medication to reduce pain. For more serious fractures or dislocations, immobilization with a splint or cast may be necessary, or even surgery.
Chronic lesions:
Another category of finger pain is chronic overuse injuries caused by repetitive movements, such as typing on a keyboard for long periods of time or playing a musical instrument such as a guitar or piano for hours without making any movement. break. Overuse of the fingers can cause inflammation of the tendons around the joint, called tendonitis. This can lead to pain as well as a limitation in the range of motion of the affected fingers.
Treatment usually involves resting the injured area and performing physical therapy exercises to reduce inflammation and increase flexibility in the affected joints.
Medical conditions:
Certain medical conditions can also cause finger pain, such as arthritis, gout, and carpal tunnel syndrome, among others. Arthritis is an age-related condition that affects many middle-aged and older people.
The joints become inflamed due to the deterioration of the cartilage between the bones. Which leads to stiffness, swelling, and ultimately pain in the fingers affected by this condition, especially in the joint areas like the knuckles near the fingernails.
Gout, on the other hand, is an inflammatory disease caused by excessive accumulation of uric acid crystals in the joints, which causes sharp pain usually accompanied by redness and warmth around the affected areas. While carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when there is compression of the median nerve, which leads to numbness and tingling sensations due to nerve damage.
These three conditions require different types of treatment depending on their severity. But most involve lifestyle changes, such as weight loss if you are overweight or obese. A healthier diet and medicines prescribed by doctors according to the individual needs of each patient.
Exposure to cold:
The cold can cause more than just shivers: it can also hurt your fingers! When exposed to cold temperatures, your body tissues lose moisture and become stiff, reducing the flexibility of tendons and ligaments. The joints of your fingers can then be prone to inflammation and pain, which leads to aches.
To protect yourself, you can wear gloves or mittens to keep your hands warm and moisturize the skin in cold weather. Also, if you are already experiencing pain, try heating compresses or open-hand exercises, such as squeezing a tennis ball, to relieve tension in your fingers.
infections:
Finger infections can have a wide variety of causes ranging from bacteria and fungi to viruses and parasites. This is because bacterial infections such as paronychia and cellulitis are usually contracted when the skin around the nail is damaged or comes into contact with a source of infection such as an open wound or unclean surface.
Fungal infections such as tinea manuum, onychomycosis, and candidiasis are also possible sources of pain in the fingertips, due to the penetration of fungi into the skin. Viruses such as Herpetic Bleaching (Herpes Virus) can cause painful blisters around or under the nails that make movement difficult.
Finally, some parasites can also cause pain in the fingertips. Giardiasis is a particularly unpleasant example of this which often results in uncomfortable swelling and redness of the fingers. Knowing what type of infection you may have is essential to be sure you are treating it properly.
Treatment differs from infection to infection.
For example, bacterial infections like paronychia and cellulitis can be treated with antiseptic washes, hot and cold compresses, keeping the area dry, draining pus, and taking antibiotics.
Fungal infections can usually be treated with topical or oral antifungals; however, severe cases may require prescription medication. Viruses such as herpetic whitening can be treated with antiviral drugs or steroid creams to reduce inflammation.
Parasitic infections are often treated by killing the parasites with a combination of prescription medications and other treatments, such as antibiotics or occlusion therapy.
As always, seek advice from your healthcare professional as soon as possible if symptoms become severe or persist after home treatment.
