Wrist Splints and Wrist Braces
Everybody Wears Them
Should You?

Wrist Splints and Wrist Braces are good for some things, and not so good for other desired outcomes.

For the purposes of your wrist tendonitis related pain, I'm going to group splints and braces together, as they are basically the same product.

Essentially, these products are built to stabilize the wrist (sometimes including the fingers) to keep it from moving too much -or- to keep it at a particular angle (such as when typing).

Repetitive Strain Injury, whether it's a workplace injury or a sports injury ARE NOT FIXED BY SPLINTS.

Wrist Splint Prescription

Wrist Splints are commonly prescribed and recommended for:

• Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)
• Trigger Finger
• Wrist Pain
• Wrist Tendonitis

Reasons to NOT Wear Wrist Splints

I rarely if ever suggest wearing a splint or brace on your wrist for a several reasons:

1. Wrist Splints aren't going to heal or fix your Wrist Tendonitis, Carpal Tunnel, or Trigger Finger.

2. Wrist Braces may help diminish the pain temporarily, but they don't beneficially affect the structural issue that is causing pain.

3. People generally hurt themselves more in the long run when they continue to work or play while wearing 'support'.

4. There are fast, natural methods that will make Tendonitis pain diminish and will beneficially reverse the Pain Causing Dynamic that is firmly entrenched in your body.

Having said that, they are effective at -temporarily- reducing symptoms, and depending on the product, very effective at holding your wrist at a beneficial angle or range of motion.

Tendonitis is tendonitis, no matter where it is.  The same factors cause it regardless of location.

Repetitive Strain Injury usually gets the blame.  But really, it's the tendonitis dynamic, that is responsible for:

Do Wrist Splints work?

It Depends On What You Want Them To Do

There is a correct tool for every task.

Shovels are good for digging ditches, but heavy machinery does it even better.

You can still use a shovel if you want.......

Myself, I'll use the heavy machinery. :)

Does wearing a wrist splint help you work longer with less pain?

Unfortunately, yes. Braces are pretty good at helping you to keep going longer before it hurts so bad that you have to stop for a good long while.

The downside of this is that your affected structure suffers more and more, and the Pain Causing Dynamic gets firmly anchored deeper and deeper.

Does wearing a Night Splint help keep your hand in a good position when you sleep at night?

Yes it works for that. Night Splints are effective at keeping your fingers, hand, and wrist from curling forward while you sleep. This is a good thing.

Because of the tight muscles and injury guarding nervous system, it is common for your wrist to bend forward and your fingers to curl  into a clenched fist while you are supposed to be Resting and healing.

This effectively means that you are 'squeezing' all night long, working and tightening your forearm and hand muscles when they are supposed to be loosening and relaxing.

Do splints protect my hands/wrists from more Repetitive Strain Injury?

No.

Splints for Carpal Tunnel or Tendonitis may -slow- the progress, but they do not -prevent- damage.

Do Wrist Braces help diminish wrist pain?

Statistically, yes. Temporarily. The key word here is 'TEMPORARILY'.

Do wrist braces reduce pain more than Anti-Inflammatory Medicine?

It depends on the person and their specific situation.

Splints are a decent temporary stop-gap method of pain relief.

Anti-Inflammatory Medicine can effectively diminish your inflammation and thus your pain.

Temporarily.

Remember the ditch digging analogy? Both of these measures are like using a shovel to dig. There are better tools.

For instance, you can drastically reduce your pain when you learn How To Reduce Tendonitis Inflammation.

Make sure you understand the Tendonitis dynamic.  See:  What Is Tendonitis?  

Understanding the mechanism will help you understand why wrist and forearm splints don't fix wrist tendonitis or carpal tunnel.

The One Sentence Summary
Of Wrist Splints

Wrist Splints and Braces prolong your suffering and do not beneficially affect your pain causing dynamic, EXCEPT in the case of wearing a splint at night to keep your fingers and wrist from curling and 'clenching', or contracting and working, all night long.

Related topic:  Splints are commonly prescribed for any wrist pain scenario..

Related topic:  Sleeping in Splints for 4 years is not the best strategy in the world....

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