When your hand is injured or in pain you realize, as you may never have before, how crucial healthy hands are. Not only do you need them to accomplish physical tasks, but also to communicate. Hand ailments have a huge effect on your life. This is why you need a surgeon trained as a hand doctor.
Without specialized medical care, you may not be able to work or handle the daily necessities of living, enduring unnecessary pain or stiffness. You may not even be able to pick up your child and your grip may weaken to the point that you drop things unexpectedly. This is an interruption to your life that you don’t need.
We urge you not to ignore impending problems with your wrists, hands, fingers and/or thumb. And don’t rely solely upon over-the-counter medicines, because it is not good for your overall health to take them daily. Putting off professional medical treatment can mean your problem gets worse the longer you neglect it. You can avoid irreversible damage to your hands with early diagnosis and treatment from a hand doctor, right here in NJ.
Effect of Treatment Delays in Common Hand Ailments
Optimal hand function is important to each of us as individuals, but hand ailments also have a huge impact on society. Let’s take a common hand and wrist problem for example: carpal tunnel syndrome. This condition has a big impact on the livelihood and quality of life for millions of people.
Of all (non-fatal) illnesses and work injuries that cause missed workdays, Carpal tunnel requires one of the longest time-off periods. Carpal tunnel, on average, causes nearly 1 month of missed work for those affected, according to US government statistics. In fact, the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) found that only fractures result in more missed workdays. We believe that most of this missed work and suffering is due to delay in or lack of medical treatment.
Why So Much Missed Work from Hand Problems?
It is likely that the missed workdays represent only part of the suffering people experience from carpal tunnel and other hand and wrist ailments—but measuring work impact provides a good way to illustrate the importance of early, proper treatment for healthy hands. Part of the reason so much missed work occurs, we suspect, is that carpal tunnel is often not medically treated, or not treated properly. Proper treatment from a specialized NJ hand surgeon helps patients get back to work and life much more quickly and can save people lots of pain and wasted time.
Your Local Hand Surgeon: The Quickest Path to Hand Pain Relief
When temporary solutions are not helpful for hand conditions, you owe it to yourself and those you care for to get proper medical treatment. Many patients suffer needlessly for years before seeing a hand surgeon. They assume their own diagnosis (for instance, arthritis) —and then further assume nothing can be done.
Serious, crippling arthritis can result from minor arthritic aches and pains. Arthritis and the damage it does to your hands can be treated when you see a good hand surgeon. To prevent irreversible damage and hand impairment, see a Bergen County hand surgeon when you first notice pain, numbness, swelling or other symptoms.
Why See a Hand Surgeon? Do I Really Need Hand Surgery?
Many people get a proper diagnosis for the first time when they visit a hand surgeon, after years of restricted movement, pins-and-needles and pain. And you shouldn’t worry that a hand doctor will rush you into a surgical solution to your hand pain or impairment. Expert hand surgeons as there to provide an accurate diagnosis, to monitor the progress of chronic ailments such as osteoarthritis or diabetic nerve damage, and to improve your hand function.
Your surgeon will first try the simplest, non-invasive treatments (or make certain you have tried them in your past medical history). Only if simple treatments fail (like icing, oral medicines, rest and physical therapy) will your NJ hand doctor suggest surgical solutions.
Cortisone shots may also be given, but are only a short-term treatment option, since the drug has negative effects on the body after repeated use. Your hand surgeon will only recommend surgery when and if these simple and non-invasive treatments fail. Luckily, most hand surgeries, performed by a surgeon specifically trained as a hand doctor, are only minimally invasive, with swift recovery.
Why are Hands so Complicated? Do they Need their Own Doctor?
Complexity is the reason that hand surgery requires a specially trained surgeon. The hand is a complex web of muscles, nerves, blood vessels, tendons, cartilage and many tiny, specialized bones. Hands and fingers have a mechanical aspect to them. They work on a rope and pulley type of system. Additionally, to maintain hand strength and dexterity, many other interrelated bodily issues and functions come into play, including:
- The brain: Your brain must communicate with the hands and fingers in a clear, uninterrupted manner for proper function. For this, you need healthy nerve function. Working with nerves to improve function or to repair the nerves, as a hand surgeon must, can require complex microsurgery. As you can imagine, meticulous technique and a delicate touch are required.
- Muscles: Your muscles must be strong to complete all the tasks that the hands and fingers must do each day. Muscles are kept healthy by movement and exercise—but this is impaired, restricted and painful when you have an untreated hand problem. After the inability to move for a long while, muscles can atrophy.
- Blood flow: You need good circulation to keep those muscles healthy, because blood circulation delivers oxygen and nutrients to all parts of your body, including your extremities. Inflammation from untreated arthritis or poor circulation due to obesity or diabetes can crowd your nerves, causing numbness. That’s why good treatment from a qualified hand doctor is crucial.
There is much more to say about the integration of the hands with the wellbeing of the rest of the body, but this gives you an idea of the intertwined relationships of body systems. It should also make you realize that a generic surgeon should never replace an expert hand doctor.
Choosing the Best Hand Doctor: It’s a Personal Thing
Once you’ve checked your hand surgeon’s qualifications, meet with and the choose the best doctor for you. Here’s what you should look for:
- Referrals and reputation: A good way to begin searching for a hand doctor is to seek referrals from your general practitioner, family or friends.
- Internet research: Go online to get a bit of background on local hand surgeons.
- NJ State Licensure: You should also check the physician’s record with the state of NJ, to ensure that he or she is licensed and has a clean record with no sanctions.
- Medical education: Make sure to look at other strong indicators of expertise in hand surgery, such as the medical school and residency that the hand doctor has completed. In the case of typically intricate hand surgery, a well-known university with an excellent reputation does matter. Elite hand surgeons must have a top tier medical education behind them.
- Plastic and reconstructive surgery training: Choose a northern NJ surgeon from a plastic surgery practice to ensure that your surgeon has the mindset and skills to restore function to your hand, as well as take care to hide any scars. When the practice also does reconstructive surgery, this is ideal. This indicates an interest in (and deep knowledge of) the anatomy and function of the hand, fingers and wrist.
- Get the right surgeon for you. Your search for the best hand doctor gets personal at this point. This is when you meet with the hand surgeon you’ve researched. Evaluate the communication between you and your surgeon. Choose the hand doctor who explains your options/ treatment plans clearly and genuinely seems interested in your wellbeing.
Remember, if your hand surgeon immediately suggests surgery, without taking your medical history or examining your hands, that is a bad sign. As we’ve pointed out, top NJ hand doctors provide other levels of treatment and would never focus solely on hand surgery. Choose the surgeon who gains your confidence. In the end, choose the surgeon you trust.
How Your Cohen/Winters Hand Doctor can Help
Let’s face it, if your hands are impaired, your overall physical and mental health can suffer, too. You can become frustrated at the difficulty or impossibility of doing daily tasks and interacting with others. You can become depressed because you’re not living your life fully and the longer you try to ignore the problem with your hand, the worse the condition may become. You don’t need to live this way.
At Cohen/Winters Aesthetic & Reconstructive Surgery, we are dedicated to improving lives through aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. Hand surgery is a big part of our practice and we’d like to help you if you are dealing with a hand injury or ailment. We’re happy to offer a free consultation to answer your questions, assess your condition and determine how treatment from our hand doctor might benefit you.
At our Bergen County, NJ practice, we are well versed in the very latest hand treatments, including state-of-the-art non-surgical treatment. We won’t recommend surgery if it will not benefit your condition. Conversely, if you do need hand surgery, we’ll use our expertise and minimally invasive techniques to ensure you’re back to normal (and better than ever) in no time. Please contact us to learn more today!
