Austin Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Care

If you are experiencing pain, tingling or numbness in your fingers or hands or if you suddenly seem to have less grip strength or manual dexterity, you may well be one of the millions of people who develop carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) each year. This potentially crippling ailment caused by an impinged nerve represents a major occupational hazard in today’s society. Fortunately, chiropractic treatment can serve as an effective option for Austin carpal tunnel syndrome cases.

CTS has become prevalent in offices where employees must spend a significant portion of their waking hours working on computers. However, it can also affect others whose work requires constant repetitive hand or wrist motions -- everything from hammering nails to driving a truck. To make these or any other hand motions, your brain must send nerve signals to tell your hands or fingers what to do. These nerves branch from the spinal cord through the arms to the wrists. The median nerve enters the wrist through a hollow area within the bones known as the carpal tunnel to coordinate motion and sensation in the hands. Unfortunately, many of the repetitive motions we put our hands through every day can put pressure on this nerve, leading to the pain, tingling and loss of function we know as CTS.

But, the nerve impingement that causes CTS can occur much higher in the body than the hands or wrists. Many Austin office workers who blame their condition on incorrect hand positions, bad wrist angles or overworked fingers should consider the role their neck plays in this condition. A spinal misalignment in the neck can directly press on the nerves that serve the hands, creating unmistakable CTS symptoms. This spinal misalignment may come from poor sitting posture, an incorrectly positioned computer monitor, a neck injury or even a congenital condition that that lurked for years, waiting for the right set of conditions to strike.

Help for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from Our Chiropractor

While surgical techniques exist to correct CTS, you should treat them as a last resort after you have first tried safer and less invasive methods. A skilled Austin chiropractor can prevent you from ever having to have such a surgery, which inevitably involves an element of risk and an unavoidable recovery period that can keep you away from your work.

Here, at Whitehead Chiropractic, we offer a variety of non-surgical techniques that can address your condition. Our practitioner, Dr. Wendee Whitehead, knows how to manipulate wrist bones to relieve direct pressure on the median nerve, putting an end to those troublesome sensations and restoring normal function to your hands. We can also splint the affected wrist to restrict motion and allow healing. If your CTS originates in your neck, we can remove nerve impingement in that area by bringing the vertebrae back into proper alignment.

If you would prefer a safe, effective and non-surgical strategy for curing your CTS, contact our Austin office today at 512-368-4960.