Finger Injury
Having a break can be a simple or a serious injury, depending on the nature of the accident and the damage that it caused. Breaking a finger can be painful, irritating, and even totally unbearable. The functional use of your hand can be seriously limited when you have a broken finger, and you need to make sure that you do everything necessary to properly analyze, diagnose, and treat the injury.
Here are some of the basics when it comes to broken fingers, how they happen, how to diagnose a break in your finger, and how to treat it.
What is a Broken Finger?
When you break a finger you suffer a fracture of one of the 14 bones in your fingers, which are known as metacarpals. The most common breaks that adults have are to their little fingers.
What Can Cause a Broken Finger?
There are endless potential different causes when it comes to breaking your finger. Using your hands and fingers to break your fall is a really common way that leads to breaking your fingers. High contact or competitive sports that require the use of your hands can also result in high impact collisions and breaking a finger. You can also break your finger by jamming it while trying to catch or stop a ball. Slamming your finger in a car door or in any door can cause a fracture. Be careful when using power tools or heavy tools in general. The careless use of them could cause a finger fracture as well. Car accidents can also cause broken fingers, particularly in children if they have their hands up and about.
Do You Have a Broken Finger?
Identifying a broken finger is fairly simple. You are going to probably notice:
- Inflammation around the site of the break or fracture
- Tenderness around the area of a fractured finger
- Bruising around the finger or fingers where it/they are fractured
- A lack of mobility or range of motion in the broken finger
- That the broken finger may appear odd or deformed
Diagnosis
If you think that you or your child has broken a finger, you should see your doctor immediately. They will ask you what happened and how you may have broken your finger, and then take the necessary steps toward diagnosing your break. Your finger can break in several different ways:
- Straight across the bone
- In a spiral
- Into several large pieces
- Shattering your finger
After your doctor discovers the kind of break that you have, they will then proceed to treat you accordingly.
Treatment
If your break does not require surgery, your doctor may put your broken finger in a splint or a cast. In some cases, your doctor may splint your healthy fingers to the broken one to provide additional support.
In some cases of serious breaks, you may require surgery. Then, your doctor may use screws, pins, and other medical devices to hold your fractured bones together until they heal.
Woodland Personal Injury Lawyer
I’m Ed Smith, a Woodland personal injury lawyer. If you have suffered a serious injury after an auto accident, please give me a call at (530) 392-9400 for free and friendly advice. Or, call me toll-free at (800) 404-5400 when calling outside of the Woodland community.
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Image Attribution: By Dresdak – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=51662878
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